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DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR 

FRANKLIN K. LANE, Secretary 



"V, -.NATIONAL PARK SERVICE 

STEPHEN T. MATHER, Director 



THE 

NATIONAL PARKS 
PORTFOLIO 



BY 

ROBERT STERLING YARD 



^in 




GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE 

WASHINGTON, D. C. 

1917 






SECOXD EDITION 



FOR SALE BY SUPERINTENDENT OF DOCUMENTS 
GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE, WASHINGTON, D. C. 
PoRTFOuo IN 11 Sections, Loose :x Flexible Cover 35 Cents 
Book Bovnd in Cloth 55 Cents 



D. of D. 
DEC 3 1917 



DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR 

FRANKLIN K. LANE, Secretary 



NATIONAL P.\RK SERVICE 

STEPHEN T. MATHER, Director 



INTRODUCTION 



\0 BUILD a railroad, reclaim lands, give new impulse to enterprise, 

Taiid offer new doors to ambitious capital — tliese are phases of 
the ever-widening life and activity of this Nation. The United 
l| States, however, does more; it furnishes playgrounds to the peo- 
ple which are, ^\•e mav modestly state, without any rivals in the world. Just 
as tlie cities are seeing the wisdom and necessity of open spaces for the chil- 
dren, so with a very large view the Nation has been saving from its domain 
tlie rarest places of grandeur and beauty for the enjoyment of the \vorld. 

And this fact has been discovered only recently by many. Europe being 
closed, thousands for the lirst time have crossed the continent and seen one or 
more of the national parks. That such mountains and glaciers, lakes and can- 
yons, forests and ^vaterfalls were to be found in this country was a revelation to 
many who had heard but had not believed. It would appear from the ex- 
perience of the past year that the real awakening as to the value of these parks 
has at last been realized, and that those who have hitherto found themselves 
enticed by the beauty of the Alps and the Rhine and the soft loveliness of the 
valleys of France mav find equal if not more stimulating satisfaction in the 
mountains, rivers, and valleys which this Government has set apart for them 
and for all others. 

There is no reason why this Nation should not make its public health and 
scenic domain as available to all its citizens as Switzerland and Italv make 
theirs. The aim is to open them thoroughly bv road and trail and give access 
and accommodation to every degree of income. In this belief an effort is 
making now as never before to outfft the parks \\itli new hotels and public 
camps which should make tlie visitor desire to linger rather than hasten on 
his journey. One large new hotel has been luiilt in the \^alley of the Yosemite 
with an annex high overhead on Glacier Point, while more modest lodges have 
been dotted about in the obscurer spots to make accessible the rarer beauties 
of the inner Yosemite. For, with the new Tioga Road, which, through the 
generosity of Mr. vStephen T. Mather and a few others, the Government has 
acquired, there is to be revealed a new Yosemite which only John Muir and 
others of similar l^ent have seen. This is a Yosemite far different from the 
quiet, incomparable valley. It is a land of forests, snow, and glaciers. From 

54390°— 17 (,) 



Mount Lyell one looks, as from an island, ii])on a tumbled sea of snowy peaks. 
Its lakes, many of which have never been fished, are alive with trout. And 
through it foams the Tuolumne River, a water spectacle destined to world 
celebrity, 

A new hotel, accompanied by adequate camping facilities, has been built 
on a shoulder of Mount Rainier, in Paradise Valley; and roads are projected to 
open up the northern side of this wonderful ice mountain. New roads and 
trails are building in the Glacier National Park, and new hotels are projected to 
make accessible portions of this scenic wilderness of incomparable magnificence. 

Wliile as the years have passed we have been modestly develojjing the 
su]5erb scenic possibilities of the Yellowstone, nature has made of it the largest 
and most populous game i)reserve in the Western Hemisphere. Its great size, 
its altitude, its vast wildernesses, its plentiful waters, its favorable conforma- 
tion of rugged mountain and slieltered valley, and the nearly perfect protec- 
tion alTorded by the policy and the scientific care of the Government have 
made this park, since its inauguration in 1872, the natural and inevitable cen- 
ter of game conservation for this Nation. There is something of significance 
in this. It is the destiny of the national parks, if wisely controlled, to 
l)ecome tlie public laboratories of nature study for the Nation. And from 
them specimens may be distributed to tlie city and State preserves, as is 
now being done with the elk of the Yellowstone, wliicli are too abundant, and 
mav be done later with the antelope. 

If Congress will but make the fimds available for the construction of roads 
over which automobiles may travel with safety (for all the parks are now open 
to motors) and for trails to hunt out the hidden places of beauty and dignity. 
we may expect that year by year these parks will become a more precious 
possession of the people, holding them to the further discovery of America 
and making them still prouder of its resources, esthetic as ^vell as material. 

Franklin K. Lanu, 

Secretary of the Interior. 



(4) 



T 



PRESENTATION 

HIS Nation is richer in natural scenery of the first order than any 
other nation; but it does not know it. It possesses an empire 
of grandeur and beauty which it scarcely has heard of. It owns 
the most inspiring playgrounds and the best equipped nature 
schools in the world and is serenely ignorant of the fact. In its national 
parks it has neglected, because it has quite overlooked, an economic asset of 
incalculable value. 

The Nation must awake, and it now becomes our happv dutv to waken it 
to so pleasing and profita1)le a reality. This portfolio is the morning call to 
the day of realization. 

Individual features of several of our national parks are known the world 
over; but few to whom the Yosemite Valley is a household word know that 
its seven wonderful miles are a part of a scenic wonderland of eleven hundred 
square miles called the Yosemite National Park. So with the Yellowstone; 
all have heard of its geysers, but few indeed of its thirty-three hundred square 
miles of wilderness beauty. Some of the linest of our national parks here 
pictured you probably have never even heard of. The Sequoia National 
Park, a hundred miles south of the Yosemite, one of the noblest scenic areas 
in the world, is the home of more than a million sequoias, the celebrated Big 
Trees of California; but even its name is known to few. The Crater Lake 
National Park encloses the deepest anrl bluest lake in the world surrounded 
by walls of pearly fretted lavas of indescribable beauty — a very wonder spot; 
but it is probably least knovv-n of all. 

The main object of this portfolio, therefore, is to present to the people of 
this country a panorama of our national parks and national monuments set 
side by side for their study and comparison. Each park will be found highly 
individual. The whole will be a revelation. 

This is the first really representative presentation of American scenery 
of grandeur ever published, perhaps ever made. The selection is from photo- 
graphs collected during a period of many months from all available sources, 
and represents the most striking work of many photographers. 

The portfolio is dedicated to the American people. It is my great hope 
that it will serve to turn the busy eyes of this Nation upon its national parks 
long enough to bring some realization of what these pleasure gardens ought to 
mean, of what so easily they may be made to mean, to this people. 

Stephen T. Mather, 

Director, National Park Service. 



(5) 




NOTE TO SECOND EDITION 

HE first edition of the National Parks Portfolio, which numbered 
275,000 copies, was issued by the Department of the Interior in 
June, 1 91 6. The second edition, brought up to date by the substi- 
tution of later photographs and enlarged by the addition of the 
Hot Springs Section, is one of the first publications of the new National Park 
Service, which Congress created August 25, 191 6. 

Acknowledgments are due to the many photographers, professional and 
amateur, who contributed some of the best examples of their work to this 
Portfolio; to the United States Geological Sur\^ey for assistance and hearty 
cooperation ; to many helpful individuals ; and to seventeen Western railroads, 
whose contribution of forty- three thousand dollars made possible its first 
publication. 

Robert Sterling Yard. 



(6) 



PUBLIC RESERVATIONS 

UNDER CONTROL OF THE NATIONAL PARK SERVICE 

NATIONAL PARKS 

NAMU SEE SECTION 

Casa Grande Ruin Page 20 . . Hot Springs. 

Crater Lake Crater Lake. 

Generae Grant Pages 3-5 . Sef|uoia. 

Glacier Glacier. 

Hawaii Pages 7- 11 , Hot Springs. 

Hot Springs of Arkansas Pages 2-6 . Hot Springs. 

Lassen Voecanic Pages 16-17 • Plot Springs. 

Mesa A^erdE Mesa Verde. 

Mount McKinlEy Pages 12-15 Hot Springs. 

Mount Rainier . ' Mount Rainier. 

Peatt Page 20 . . Hot Springs. 

Rocky Mountain Rocky Mountain. 

Sequoia Sequoia. 

SuEEYS HiEE Page 14 . . Hot Springs. 

Wind Cave Page 20 . . Hot Springs. 

YeeeowstonE Yellowstone. 

YosEMiTE Yosemite. 

NATIONAL MONUMENTS 
Indicating Page in Hot Springs Section Where Each May be Found 

Capuein Mountain 32 Navajo 34 

Chaco Canyon 29 Naturae Bridges 28 

Colorado 29 Papago Saguaro 32 

Levies Tower 26 Pinnacles 32 

Dinosaur 30 Petrified Forest of Arizona . 33 

El Morro 32 Rainbow Bridge 31 

Gran Ouivira 34 vShoshone Cavern 29 

Lewis and Clark Cavern . . 30 SiEur de Monts 24 

Montezuma Castle . . . . 26 Sitka 33 

MuiR Woods ....... 22 Tumacacori ....... 34 

Mukuntuweap „ , , . . 18,21 

(7) 



CONTENTS 



YKi,LowsTf)NK National Park 31 Views 

Tlic L:ind of Wimdcrs — Threefold Personality — Geysers Spout and Steaming 
Vapors Rise — Many Colored Canyon — ^Greatcst Animal Refuge — Animals 
Really at Home — The Paradise of Anglers — Living in the Yellowstone. 

YosEMiTE National Park 28 Views 

Land of Enchantment — The Valley Incomparable — Charm of llie Scenic Wild — 
Living in the Wilderness — Tioga Road — North of the Valley's Rim — Mad Waters 
of Tuolumne — The iCverlasting Snows. 

Sequoia National Park 27 \'iews 

Land of Giant Trees— The Biggest Thing Alive— The Oldest Thing Alive- 
Other People's Sequoias — Kings and Kern Canyons^Our Loftiest Mountain. 

Mount Rainier National Park 24 Views 

The Frozen Octopus — The Giant Rivers of lectin an Arctic Wonderland — 
Glacier and Wild Flawer — Eiisiest Glaciers t) vSec. 

L^RATiiK Lake National Park {- ^^i^Rrams 

[ 21 Views 

The Lake of Mystery — "The Sea of Silence" — Story of Mount Mazama — 
The Legend of Llao — Viewed from the Rim — The Mine of Beauty — Fishing. 

Mesa Verde National Park 27 Views 

Cities of the P;ist— The Story of the Mesas— In the ClilT Dwellings— Dis 
cover)' of Sun Temijle — The Mesa's Little People — The Principal Dwellings. 

rxLACiER N.vriONAL Park 25 \jews 

An Alpine Paradise — Making a National Park — Its Lakes and \'alleys — Com- 
fort Among Glaciers — Purchased from Indians — Creatures of the Wild. 

Rocky Mountain National Park 30 Views 

"Top of the World" — Precipice-Walled Gorges — The King and His Kingdom — 
Metropolis of Beaverland — Records of the Glaciers — E;isy t j Reach and vSce. 

Hot v^i'rings Reservation and Certain other National Parks 

AND National Monuments 35 Views 

XalioiKil Parks: Hot Springs — Hawaii — Moimt McKinley — Lassen \'olcanic — 
Wind Cave — Piatt — Casa Grande — SidlysHill. Xational Moiiuinciils: Mukinitu- 
weaj) — Natural Bridges — Muir Woods— Sieur de Monts — Montezuma Castle — 
Devils Tower — Chaco Canyon — Shoshone Cavern — Colorado — Rainbow Bridge — 
Lewis and Clark Cavern — Dinosaur^Petrified Forest — Sitka — Tumacacori — Gran 
Quivira — Navajo — Papago Saguaro— El Morro — Pinnacles — Cajjulin Mountain. 

('.R.\ND Canyon N.ytkjnal Monument 24 Views 

Colossus of Canyons — ^By Smiset and Moonrise — Painted in Magic Colors — 
Romantic Indiim Legend — ^Masterpiece of Erosion — Powell's Adventure. 

(8) 




Pliolograpk hy J. F. Hayvr^, Si. Paid 



OLD FAITHFUL 



X H F 

YELLOWSTONE 

NATIONAL PARK 



DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR 
Franklin K. Lane, Secretary 



NATIONAL PARK SERVICE 




Photgrapl! by E J. IJayius. Si. Punl 

The Great Fails of the Yellowstone, Nearly Twice as High as Niagara 
Below these falls the ri\er enters the gorgeously colored Grand Canyon of the "^'ellowstone 




Copyright, igo6, hy \V S. Jicrry 



Anti-lupe 



THE LAND of WONDERS 




HE Yellowstone National Park is the largest and most widely cele- 
brated of our national parks. It is a wooded wilderness of thirty- 
three hundred square miles. It contains more geysers than are 
found in the rest of the world together. It has innumerable boiling 
springs whose steam mingles with the clouds. 

It has many rushing rivers and large lakes. It has waterfalls of great 
height and large volume. It has fishing waters unexcelled. 

It has canyons of sublimity, one of which presents a spectacle of broken 
color unequaled. It has areas of petrified forests with trunks standing. It 
has innumerable wild animals which have ceased unduly to fear man; in fact, 
it is unique as a bird and animal sanctuary. 

It has great hotels and many pubUc camps. It has two hundred miles of 
excellent roads. 

In short, it is not only the wonderland that common report describes; it is 
also the fitting playground and pleasure resort of a great people; it is also the 
ideal summer school of nature study. 



:i^'\¥^ V 



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a-^-^> ->iVt'..j:r 




Pliotoijrafh by Georoc R K:n,i 

The Upper Falls of the ^'ellowsfone, a Few Miles Below Yellowstone Lake 
bove these falls the rushing river lies nearly level with surrounding country; below it begin the canvons 




Photograph by Ctutyc K. King 



Crest of the Lower Falls 



THREEFOLD PERSONALITY 



i lHE Yellowstone is associated in the public mind with geysers only. 

T Thousands even of those who, watches in hand, have hustled 
from sight to sight over the usual stage schedules, bring home 
l| vivid impressions of little else. 
There never was a greater mistake. Were there no geysers, the Yellow- 
stone watershed alone, with its glowing canyon, would be worth the national 
park. Were there also no canyon, the scenic wilderness and its incomparable 
wealth of wild-animal life would be worth the national park. 

The personality of the Yellowstone is threefold. The hot- water manifes- 
tations are worth minute examination, the canyon a contemplative visit, the 
park a summer. Dunraven Pass, Mount Washburn, the canyon at Tower 
Falls, Shoshone Lake, Sylvan Pass — these are known to very few indeed. 
See all or you have not seen the Yellowstone. 







Casti.e Well, One of the Innumerable Hot Springs 
Tlicse springs, whose marvellously clear water is a deep blue, lia\e an astonishino; depth 




Photograph hy Edward S. Cn 



The Cakveu and Fretted Terraces at Mammoth Hot Springs 
These great white hills, deposits! and built up by the hot waters, sometimes envelope forest trees 

vs 




The Gi\n-t Geyser, in M\ny Resplcis the Greatest of All 
It spouts for an hour at a time, the water reaching a height of 250 feet. Inter^-al, sec to fourteen days 




iryid -Y^— 17 — 2 




I'lu'Uwrath by J. E. llavius. St. Paul 

Klectric Pi'AK, a Sliphrb Landmark, uk thi- North Side 



MANY-COLORED CANYON 




ROM Inspiration Point, looking a thousand feet almost vertically 
down upon tlie foaming Yellowstone River, and southward three 
miles to the Great Falls, the hushed observer sees spread before 
liini the most glorious kaleidoscope of color he will ever see in 
nature. The steep slopes are inconceivably carved by the frost and the ero- 
sicHi of the ages. Sometimes they lie in straight lines at easy angles, from 
which jut high rocky ])rominences. Sometimes they seem carved from the 
side walls. Here and there jagged rocky needles rise perpendicularly like 
gi'oups of gothic spires. 

And the whole is colored as brokenly and vividlv as the field of a kaleido- 
scope. The whole is streaked and spotted in every shade from the deepest 
orange to the faintest lemon, from deep crimson through all the brick shades 
to the softest pink, from black through all the grays and pearls to glistening 
wliite. The greens are furnished by the dark pines above, the lighter shades 
of gro\vth caught here and there in soft masses on the gentler slopes and the 
foaming green of the plunging river so far below. The blues, ever changing, 
are found in the dome of tlie skv overhead. 




Copyright by Hayius, St. Paul 

Sylvan Lake, below Sylvan Pass, Cody Road 




Copyright by Gifford 

\'iEw FROM Mount Washburn Snovnso Yellowstone Lake in Distance 
The northern east side is a country of striking and romantic scenery made accessible by excellent roads 




Cupyiigiii by J . E. Ilayncs, Si. Paul 

Standing upon Artist's Point, Which Pushes Out Almost Over the Foaming River 

You into the Most Glorious Kaleidoscj 







(ousAND Feet Below, the Incomparable Canyon of the Yellowstone Widens Before 
(f Color You Will Ever See in Nature 




Copyright by S. N. Leek 

Thirty Thousand Elk Roam This Sanctuary Wilderness 








Photo,jraphhyS,hlohtin 

It is the Natural Home of the Celebrated Bighorn, the Rocky-Mountain Sheep 








"koi^ 



Dehr Make Unexphcted Silhouettes at Frequent Intervals 



GREATEST ANIMAL REFUGE 



IHE Yellowstone National Park is by far the largest and most suc- 

Tcessful wild-animal preser\'e in the world. Since it was estaVj- 
lished in 1872 hunting has been strictly prohibited, and elk, bear 
' I deer of several kinds, antelope, bison, moose, and bighorn mountain 
sheep roam the valleys and mountains in large numbers. Thirty thousand elk, 
for instance, live in the park. Antelope, nearly extinct elsewhere, here abound. 
These animals have long since ceased to fear man as wild animals do ever^-- 
where except in our national parks. While few tourists see them who follow 
the beaten roads in the everlasting sequence of stages, those who linger in the 
glorious wilderness see them in an abundance that fairly astonishes. 




Photograph by S. S . Leek 

In Winter When the Snows Are Deep Park Rangers Leave Hay in Convenient Spots 



ANIMALS REALLY AT HOME 




Photograph by Edward S. Curtis 

Unlike the Grizzly, the Brown Bear Climbs Trees Quickly and Easily 



ERY different, indeed, from the beasts of the after-dinner story 

Vand the literature of adventure are the wild animals of the Yel- 
lowstone. Never shot at, never pursued, they are comparatively 
i| as fearless as song-birds nestling in the homestead trees. 
W^ilderness bears cross the road without haste a few }'ards ahead of the 
solitar}' passer-by, and his accustomed horses jog on undisturbed. Deer by 
scores lift their antlered heads above near thickets to watch his passing. Elk 
scarcel}^ slow their cropping of forest grasses. Even the occasional moose, 
straying far from his southern wilderness, scarcely quickens his long lope. 
Herds of antelope on near-bv hills watch but hold their own. 

Only the grizzl}^ and the mountain sheep, besides the predatory beasts, still 
hide in the fastnesses. But even the mountain sheep loses fear and joins the 
others in winters of heavy snow when park rangers scatter hay by the roadside. 



., • ^^: 'i^'H im^ -a 




r 









'* 



Photograph by S. N. Leek 



THE PARADISE OF ANGLERS 




HK Yellowstone is a land of splendid rivers. Tliree watersheds find 
tlieir beginnings within its borders. From Yellowstone Lake flows 
north the rushing Yellowstone River with its many tributaries; 
from Shoshone, Lewis, and Heart Lakes flows south the Snake 
River; and in tlie western slopes rise the Madison and its many tributaries. 
All are trout waters of high degree. 

The nati\'e trout of this region is the famous cutthroat. The gra\ding is 
native in the Madison River and its tributaries. Others have been planted. 
Besides the stream fishing, which is unsurpassed, the lakes, particularlv 
Shoshone Lake and certain small ones, aftord admirable sport. 




Photograph by J. E. Haynes, St. Paul 

A Big Lakk Trout from Shoshone Lake 
The game cutthroat is the commonest trout in the Yellowstone, but there are six other varieties 




Photograph by J. E. Haynes St Paul 

Cutthroats from One to Three or Four Pounds Are Taken in Large Numbers 
AT THE Yellowstone Lake Outlet 




f^ 




Copyright by Gifford 

Young Pelicans on Molly Island in Yellowstone Lake 
The "Yellowstone pelicans are very large anc! pure white, a picturesque feature of the park 




Photograph by J. E. Haynes, St. Paul 



Old I'Mthi-ui. Inn 




Cot^yn.!!! 'r / /■ //,;■.-;, -^.Sl. Paul 



Tun Mammoiu 11l'il.l 




Photograph by J. E. Haynes, St. Paul 



The Lake Hoi el 
Three of the Five Large Hotels in the Yellowstone National 1'ark 




Photograph by Shiplers, S-dl L.ik, C . 



There Are Also Large Public Camps 



LIVING in the YELLOWSTONE 




HE park has entrances on all four sides. Three have railroad 

connections; the southern entrance, by way of Jackson Hole and 

past the jagged snowy Tetons, is a\-ailable for vehicles. The roads 

from all entrances enter a central Ijelt road which makes a large 

circuit connecting places of special interest. 

Four large hotels are located at points convenient for seeing the sights, and 
are supplemented by public camps at modest prices. 

But the day of the unhurried visitor has dawned. If you want to enjoy 
your Yellowstone, if, indeed, you want even to see it, you should make your 
minimum twice five days; two weeks is better; a month is ideal. 

Spend the additional time at the canyon and on the trails. See the lake 
and the pelicans. Fish in Shoshone Lake. Climb Mount Washburn. Spend a 
day at Tower Falls. See Mammoth Hot vSprings. Hunt wild animals with a 
camera. Stay with the wilderness and it will repay you a thousandfold. Fish 
a little, study nature in her mvriad wealth — and live. 

The Yellowstone National Park is ideal for camping out. When people 
reaHze this it should quickly become one of the most lived in, as it already 
is one of the most livable, of all our national parks. 




^I^^^Kittmmmtttstt^ m » ' ' " ■ " ' 







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Vj 



Copvrioht hv S. N Lerk 

The South Entrance Is Near the Lordly Teton Range, Jlst Over the Boundary 



THE NATIONAL PARKS AT A GLANCE 

Number, 17 ; Total Area, 9,774 Square Miles, .\rranged chronologically in the order of their creation. 



N.\TION'AL PARK 

and Date 



LOC.\TIOX 



Hot Springs Res- Middle 
ERV.^rro.N' Arkansas 

1832 



Yellowstone 



North- 
western 
Wyoming 



AREA 



square 
miles 



DISTIN'CTIVE CHARACTERISTICS 



YOSEMITE 
1890 


Middle 
eastern 
California 


Sequoia 
1890 


Middle 
eastern 
California 


General Grant 

1890 


Middle 
California 


Mount Rainier 

1899 


West 

central 

Washington 


Crater Lake 
1902 


Southern 
Oregon 


Platt 
1904 


Southern 
Oklahoma 


Mesa Verde 
1906 


Southern 
Colorado 


Gl.\cier 
1910 


North- 
western 
Montana 


Rocky Mount.\in 


Northern 
Colorado 


Hawaii 
1916 


Hawaii 


Lassen Volcanic 
1916 


Northern 
Calif OTnia 


Mount McKinley 
1917 


South 
central 



Alaska 



x% 46 hot springs possessing curative properties— Many hotels 
and boarding houses in adjacent citv- of Hot Sprin'^^s — 
Bathhouses under public control. 

3,348 More geysers than in all rest of world together — Boiling 
springs— Mud volcanoes— Petrified forests— Grand Canyon 
of the Yellowstone, remarkable for gorgeous colorin'^^ 
Large lakes and waterfalls — Vast wilderness inhabited by 
deer, elk, bison, moose, antelope, bear, mountain sheep, 
etc.; greatest wild bird and animal preser^-e in world. 
1 

1, 125 j Vallej' of world-famed beauty — Loft\- cliffs — Romantic vis- 
tas — Waterfalls of extraordinan,- height — 3 groves of big 
trees— Large areas of snowy peaks— Water^vheel falls. 

The Big Tree National Park — 12,000 sequoia trees over 10 
feet in diameter, some 25 to 36 feet in diameter. 

4 Created to preser\-e the celebrated General Grant Tree, 35 
feet in diameter — 6 miles from Sequoia National Park. 

324 Largest accessible single-peak glacier system — 28 glaciers, 
some of large size — 48 square miles of glacier, ;o to 1,000 
feet thick— Remarkable subalpine wild-flower fields. 

249 Lake of extraordinar>- blue in crater of extinct volcano, no 
visible inlet, or outlet — Sides 1,000 feet high. 

\'i Sulphur and other springs possessing curative properties — 
Under Government regulation. 

77 Most notable and best-preserved prehistoric cliff dwellings 
in United States, if not in the world. 

1, 534 Rugged mountain region of unsurpassed alpine character — 

250 glacier-fed lakes of romantic beauty — 60 small gla- 
ciers — Peaks of unusual shape — Precipices thousands of 
feet deep — Fine trout fishing. 

3 98 Heart of the Rockies — SnoAv\- Range , peaks 1 1 , 000 to 1 4 , 2 5 o 
feet altitude — Remarkable records of glacial period. 

118 Two active volcanoes. Mauna Loa. largest in the world, 
and Kilaues. whose lake of bubbling lava is world famed — 
j A third volcano. Haleakala, whose crater, 8 miles wide, 
I contains many cones. 

124 Active volcano— Lassen Peak, 10.437 feet in altitude — 
Cinder Cone, 6.907 feet — Hot springs — Mud geysers. 

2, 200 Highest Mountain in North America— Rises higher above 

surrounding cotmtr}* than any mountain in the world. 



National Parks of less popular interest are: 

Casa Grande Ruin, 1889, Arizona Prehistoric Indian ruin. 

Wind Cave, 1903, South Dakota Large natxu-al cavern. 

Sullys Hill, 1904. North Dakota \;\x>oded hillv tract on Devib Lake. 



HOW TO REACH THE NATIONAL PARKS 










The map shows the loeatioii of all of our National Parks and their principal railroad cimnections. 
The tra\ eler may work out his roiites to suit himself. Low rounti trip excursion fares to the American 
Rocky Mountain region and Pacific Co;ist may be availed of in visiting the National Parks during 
their respective seasons, thus materially reducing the cost of the trip. Transcontinental through 
trains and branch lines make the Parks easy of access from all parts of the United States. For schedules 
and excursiiin fares to and between the National Parks apply to your local railway ticket oflice or 
to any excursion agency, or write to the P;issenger Departments of the railroads which appear on the 
above map, as follows: 

Arizon.\ E.vstbrm R.mlro.\p Tucson. Ariz. 

Atchison. TopKK.\ & S.\MT.\ Fi: R.MLW.w mg Railway Exchange. Chicaco. 111. 

Chic.\go & XoRTH Wk-;ti;km R.\iLW.vv j.'^i West Jackson Hoiilovanl. CliicaKo. 111. 

Chicago. BURUNC.TON & Qnvcv R.\iLKO.\D Co 547 West Jackson Boulevard, ChicaRO. 111. 

Chicago. MiLw.vuKse & St, Taul Railway Railway Hxcliaiise. Chicago. 111. 

Chic.\go. Rock Isl.\nd & Pacific Railway Co . .' La S.iUc vSireot .Station, ChicaKo.Ul. 

Colorado & SouTHKRN Railway Railway lixch injio lUiildini;, Pcnvcr.Colo. 

Denver & Rio Grande R.mlroad Co Equitable HuiUlini;, Denver. Colo. 

Great N'ORTHERN' Railway Railroail Buildins. Fourth and Jackson Streets. St Paul. .Miirn. 

Gulf. Colorado & Santa Fg Railway Galveston. Tex. 

Illinciis Central R.\ilR(^ad Central Station. Chicago. 111. 

Mis.souRi Pacific R.ULWAY Railway E.xchangc Buildini;. St, Louis. Mo. 

Northern PacificRailway Railroad Buildin.t;. Fifth and Jackson Streets. St. Paul. Minn. 

S.\n Pedro. Los Angeles & S.\lt Lake R.mlroad .... Pacific Electric Building. Los Angeles. Cal. 

SofTHERN P.\ciFic Co Fkxid Building. San Francisco. Cal. 

L'nion Pacific System Garl.\nd Building. >s East Washington Street. Chicago. 111. 

Wab.\sh R.mlway Railway E.xchange Building. St. Louis. Mo. . 

Western P.\cific Railw.w Mills Building, San Francisco. Cal. 

For information about sojourning and traveling within the National Parks write to the Department ' 
of the Interior for the Information circular of the Park or Piirks in which you are interested. 



REMEMBER THAT 



THE NATIONAL PARKS BELONG TO YOU 

THEY ARE THE GREAT NATIONAL PLAYGROUNDS OE THE AMERICAN PEOPLE 
FOR WHOM THEY ARE ADMINISTERED BY THE DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR 

,, \VASHlNGrOX ; GOVERXMEXT rRIXTIXG OFFICE : 1917 




Y 

O 

s 

E 

M 
I 

T 
E 



DEPARTMENT 

OF THE 

INTERIOR 

Franklin K. Lane 

Secretary 



n'ation.JlL park 

it L.-!-Tr v 




Pholograph by A. C. Pilhbury 

The Highest Waterfall in the World — the Yosemite Falls 

The Upper Fall measures 1,430 feet, as liigh as nine Niagaras. The Lower Fall measures 320 feet. 
The total drop from crest to river, including intermediate cascades, is almost half a mile 




Photograph by U . .>. / 

The "\'usi:mite Valli.v from Insi'iration Point, Showing Bridalveil I'alls 

LAND of ENCHANTMENT 




HO does not know of the Yosemite Valley? And yet, how few 
have heard of the Yosemite National Park! How few know that 
this world-famous, incomparable Valley is merely a crack seven 
miles long in a scenic masterpiece of eleven hundred square miles! 
John Muir loved the Valley and crystallized its fame in phrase. 
But still more he loved the National Park, which he describes as including 
"innumerable lakes and waterfalls and smooth silky lawns; the noblest forests, 
the loftiest granite domes, the deepest ice-sculptured canyons, the brightest 
crystalline pavements, and snow}' mountains soaring into the sky twelve and 
thirteen thousand feet, arrayed in open ranks and spiry-pinnacled groups par- 
tially separated by tremendous canyons and ampi theaters ; gardens on their 
sunny brows, avalanches thundering down their long white slopes, cataracts 
roaring gray and foaming in the crooked rugged gorges, and glaciers in their 
(shadowy recesses working in silence, slowly completing their sculptures; new- 
jborn lakes at their feet, blue and green, free or encumbered with drifting ice- 
jbergs like miniature Arctic Oceans, shining, sparkling, calm as stars." 




Thf YosFMiTE Valley from Giacifr IVint 
The I ppcr and I owt r ^ oscmite Falls are here sho\\Ti in panial profile 




PM.w.NW.yj.r.R.,..„ ^^^^^ ^^^^^^^ ^^^^^ ^.^^^ Washington Column 
Its summit is 4,892 feet above the floor of the Valley 




F.ARLY Morning Beside Mirror Lake 
This lake is famous for its reflections of the cliffs. Mount Watkins in the hacksround 




&^=^^ 




Copyriohltd. lii:,. by J T Boysen 



El Capitan" at Slnsft 
This gigantic rock, whose hard granite resisted the glacier, rises 3,604 feet from the \ alley floor 



THE VALLEY INCOMPARABLE 





I'hoUiiinil'h by U. S. ReilaiiuUion Scnnr 

Beautiful Vkrnal Talls 



HI{ first view of most 
spots of unusual 
celebrity often falls 
short of expecta- 
tion, hut this is seldom, if ever, 
true of the Yosemite Valley. 
The sheer immensity of the 
precipices on either side of the 
peaceful floor; the loftiness and 
the romantic suggestion of the 
numerous waterfalls; the maj- 
esty of the granite walls; and 
the unreal, almost fairy quality 
of the ever-varying whole can 
not be successfully foretold. 

This valley was once a tor- 
tuous river canyon. So rapidly 
was it cut by the Merced that 
the tributary valleys soon re- 
mained hanging high on either 
side. Then the canyon became 
the bed of a great glacier. It 
was widened as well as deepened , 
and the hanging character of the 
side valleys was accentuated. 

This explains the enormous 
height of the waterfalls. 

The Yosemite Falls, for in- 
stance, drops 1 ,430 feet in one 
sheer fall, a height equal to 
nine Niagara Falls piled one on 
top of the other. The Lower 
Yosemite Fall, immediately be- 
low, has a drop of 320 feet, 
or two Niagaras more. Vernal 
Falls has the same height. The 
Nevada Falls drops 594 feet 
sheer, and the celebrated Bridal- 
veil Falls 620 feet. Nowhere 
else in the world ma}' be had a 
water spectacle such as this. 






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Photograph by H. C. Tthbitts 

Its Name Is Self-Evident — the Bridalveil Falls 

54590°— Y— 17 2 



rh'loarat^hhy H. C TMills 



Laki: Tknaya. 




A Striking \'n:\v ok Nevada Ialls, Liukrty (.at on Lhit 




Phulograpk by A . C. P'.lLbury 

Vernal and Nevada Falls and Half Dome from thf. Glacier Poim Trail 




Photograph by J. T. Boysen 



A Bend in the Big Oak Flat Road 




Photograph by A. C. Pilhbury 

The Sheer Immensity of the Precipices on Either Side the Valley's Peaceful li 

Quality of the Ever-Varm 




THE RoNL\>TTC NLaJESTY OF THE 

OLE. Attest It Lscomp.ajl\ele 



Gr-O^tte Walls, asd the Unreal, Almost F.^rvlike 



CHARM OF THE SCENIC WILD 





Flioloarnl^li liy ( '. S. Rcclamalion Hcnicf 

The Grizzly Giant, the Biggi-st 
YosEMiTE Sequoia 



UMMER in the Yosemite is 
unreal. The Valley, with its 
foaming falls dissolving into 
mists, its calm forests hiding 
the singing river, its enormous granites 
peaked and domed against the sky, its in- 
spiring silence haunted by distant water, 
suggests a dream. One has a sense of 
fairyland and the awe of infinity. 

Imagine Cathedral Rocks rising 
twenty-six hundred feet above the wild 
flowers, El Capitan thirty-six hundred 
feet, Sentinel Dome four thousand feet. 
Half Dome five thousand feet, and 
Clouds Rest six thousand feet! And 
among them, the waterfalls! 

Even the weather appears impossi- 
ble; the summers are warm, but not too 
warm; dry, but not too dry; the nights 
cold and marvelously starry. 

A few miles away are the Big Trees, 
not the greatest groves nor the greatest 
trees, for those are in the Sequoia Na- 
tional Park, a hundred miles south, but 
three groves containing monsters which, 
next to Sequoia's, are the hugest and the 
oldest living things. Of these the Grizzly 
Giant is king — whose diameter is nearly 
thirty feet, whose girth is over ninetv- 
nine, and whose height is more than two 
hundred. Their presence commands the 
silence due to worsliip. 

Winter is becoming a feature hi the 
life of the Valley. Hotels are open to 
accommodate an increasing flow of vis- 
itors. The falls are still and frozen, the 
trees laden with snowy burdens. The 
greens have vanished; the winter sun 
shines upon a glory of gray and white. 

Winter sports are rapidly becoming 
popular on the floor of the Valley. 




i'hotoijraph by J. T. Boysen 



Sleighing and Skiing in Yosemite 
Winter sports are rapicllv becoming popular on the floor o\ the Valley 




Photograph by J . T. Boysen 



Skating on Ice on Mirror Lake 



LIVING IN THE WILDERNESS 




\\ HO S (.'OMINGr 




IVING is comfortable in the 

LYosemite. Several roomy pub- 
lic camps, and a line hotel offer 
the visitor to the Valley a 
choice of kind and price. Above the Val- 
ley lodges and most comfortable camps 
occur at convenient interA^als on road and 
trail. There is a new hotel on Glacier Point. 
These improved conditions begin the 
larger development of the Yosemite Na- 
tional Park which the Department of the 
Interior has planned so long and so care- 
hiWy. It has there inaugurated a model 
policy for all the national parks. The 
Yosemite is reached from Merced. 

The Yosemite is an excellent place to 
camp out. One may have choice of many 
kinds of moinitain country. Nearly every- 
where the trout fishing is exceptionally 
fine. Camping outfits may be rented and 
supplies purchased in the Valley. Garages 
for motorists and rest-houses for trampers 
will be found at convenient intervals. 

TIOGA ROAD 




Copyrighted, igio, by J. T. lioysm 

Woof! 



BOVE the north rim of the 
valle}' the old Tioga Road, 
which the Department of the 
Interior acquired in 191 5 and 
put into good condition, crosses the park 
from east to w^est, affording a new route 
across tlie Sierra and opening to the pub- 
lic foi- the first time the magnificent scenic 
region in the nortli. 

The Tioga Road was built in 1 88 1 to a 
mine soon after abandoned. For years it 
has been impassable. It is now the gate- 
way to a wilderness heretofore accessible 
onl}' to campers. 



NORTH OF THE VALLEY'S RIM 




EFORH the restored Tioga Road made accessible the magnificent 

mountain and valley area constituting the northern half of the 

Yosemite National Park, this pleasure paradise was known to none 

except a few enthusiasts who penetrated its wilderness year after 

year with camping outfits. 

This is the region of rivers and lakes and granite domes and Vjrilliantly 
polished glacial pavements. The mark of the glacier is seen on every hand. 
It is the region of small glaciers, remnants of a gigantic past, of which there 
are several in the park. It is the region of rock-bordered glacier lakes of 
which there are more than two hundred and fifty. It is the region, above all, 
of small, rushing rivers and of the roaring, foaming, twisting Tuolumne. 

From the base of the Sierra crest, born of its snows, the Tuolumne River 
rushes westward roughly paralleling the Tioga Road. Midway it slants 
sharply down into the Tuolumne Canyon forming in its mad course a water 
spectacle destined some dav to world fame. 




..,>^pat; II. C. J 



TioG.\ koAD Scenery 



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Photograph by W . L. Huber 

The High Sierra: View of Mount Riiter from Kuna Chest 




P holograph by Herbert W . Gleason 

Beautiful Rogers Lake and Regulation Peak in the Northern Part of the Park 




Photograph by IC L. Hubur 



The Waterwheel Below California Falls 



MAD WATERS of TUOLUMNE 




ONE but the hardiest cUmbers have clamlDered do^vn the Grand 
Canyon of the Tuohiinne and seen its leaping waters. 

Here the river, slanting sharply, becomes, in John ]\Iuir's 
phrase, "one wild, exulting, onrushing mass of snowy purple bloom 
spreading over glacial waves of granite without an}- definite channel, gliding in 
magnificent silver plumes, dashing and foaming through huge bowlder dams, leap- 
ing high in the air in wheellike whirls, displaying glorious enthusiasm, tossing 
from side to side, doubling, glinting, singing in exuberance of mountain energv." 




Photograph by A. C. Pillsbh 



A Pair of Tuolumne V/aterwheels 



THE EVERLASTING SNOWS 




UMMITS of !> e r ]) o t u a 1 
siu)\v are, for most Amer- 
icans, a new association 
with Yosemitc. But tlie 
region's very origin was that Sierra 
whose crest peaks on the park's eastern 
boundary still shelter in shnnikcn old 
age tlie once all-])owerful glaciers. 

Kxcelsior, Conness, Dana, Kuna, 
Blacktop, I, yell. Long — from the com 
jianionship of tliese great peaks de- 
scended the ice-])ack of old and de- 
scend to-dav the sjiarkling waters of 
the Tuolunme and the Merced. 

PVom their great siunmits the 
climber beholds a su1)lime wilderness of 
crowded, towering mountains, a con- 
trast to the silent, uplifting A^alley as 
striking as mind can cmiceive. Ever- 
lasting snows lill the hollows between 
the peaks and spatter their jagged 
granite sides. The glaciers feed in- 
numerable small lakes. 




I'holoijraHihy IT.. L Ihibtr 

ASCKNDINC; Mm NT l.YFI.I. 




Photograph by II'. L. Ruber 

CROSsiNt; Snow Hi'M.Mocks in the Ascent of Mount Lyell 

Xi Y 



THE NATIONAL PARKS AT A GLANCE 

Number, 17; Total Area, 9,774 vSquare Miles. Arranged chronologically in the order of their creation. 



NATIONAL PARK 
and Date 



LOCATION 



Hot vSprings Res- 
krvation 

1832 

Yellowstone 

1872 



YOSEMITE 
i8qo 



Sequoia 
i8go 



General Grant 

i8go 

Mount Rainier 



Crater Lake 
1902 

Platt 
1904 

Mesa Verde 
1906 

Glacier 
1910 



Rocky Mountain 



Hawaii 
1916 



Lassen Volcanic 
1916 

Mount McKinley 
1917 



Middle 
Arkansas 



North- 
western 
Wyoming 



Middle 
eastern 
California 

Middle 
eastern 
California 

Middle 
Califcjrnia 

West 

central 

Washington 

vSoiithern 
Oregon 

Southern 
Oklahoma 

Southern 
Colorado 

North- 
western 
Montana 



Northern 
Cfjlorado 

Hawaii 



Northern 
California 

vSouth 

central 

Alaska 



AREA 



sriuare 
miles 



3.348 



125 



252 



324 



249 



77 



534 



398 



118 



124 



distinctive CHARACTERISTICS 



46 hot springs possessing curative properties^Many hotels 
and hoarding houses in adjacent city of Hot vSprings — 
Bathhouses under public control. 

More geysers than in all rest oi world together— Boiling 
springs— Mud volcanoes -Petrified forests— Grand Canyon 
of the Yellowstone, remarkalde for gorgeous coloring — 
Large lakes and waterfalls -Vast wilderness inhabited by 
deer, elk, bison, moose, antelope, bear, mountain sheej), 
etc.; greatest wild bird and animal preserve in world. 

Valley of world-famed beauty— Lofty clifTs— Romantic vis- 
tas — Waterfalls of extraordinary height — 3 groves of big 
trees— Large areas of snowy peaks— Waterwheel falls. 

The Big Tree National Park— 12,000 sequoia trees over 10 
feet in diameter, some 25 to 36 feet in diameter. 

Created to preserve the celebrated General Grant Tree, 35 
feet in diameter— 6 miles from .Sequoia National Park. 

Largest accessible single-peak glacier system— 28 glaciers, 
some of large size— 48 square miles of glacier, 50 to 1,000 
feet thick — Remarkable sub;dpine wild-flower fields. 

Lake of extraordinary blue in crater of extinct volcano, no 
visible inlet, or outlet— Sides 1,000 feet high. 

vSulphur and other springs possessing curative properties — 
Under {ifjverninent regulati(;n. 

Most notable and best-preserved prehistoric clifT dwellings 
in United States, if not in the world. 

Rugged mountain region of unsurpassed alpine character— 
250 glacier-fed lakes of romantic beauty— 60 small gla- 
ciers-Peaks of unusual shape— Precipices thousands of 
feet deep — Fine trout fishing. 

Heart of the Rockies— vSnowy Range, peaks 11, 000 to 14,250 
feet altitude— Remarkable records of glacial period. 

Two active volcanoes, Mauna Loa, largest in the world, 
and Kilauea, whose lake of bubbling lava is world famed^ 
A third volcano, Haleakala, whose crater, 8 miles wide, 
contains many cones. 

Active volcano Lassen Peak, 10,437 *^eet in altitude- 
Cinder Cone, 6,907 feet — Hot springs — Mud geysers. 

Highest Mountain in North America Rises higher above 
surrounding country than any mountain in the world. 



National Parks of less popular interest are: 

Casa Grande Ruin, 1889, Arizona Prehistoric Indian ruin. 

Wind Cave, 1903, South Dakota Large natural cavern. 

SuUys Hill, 1904, North Dakota Wooded hilly tract on Devils Lake. 



HOW TO REACH THE NATIONAL PARKS 




The map shows the location of all of our National Parks and their principal railroad connections. 
The traveler may work out his routes to suit himself. Low round-trip excursion fares to the American 
Rocky Moimtain region and Pacific Coast may be availed of in visiting the National Parks during 
their respective seasons, thus materially reducing the cost of the trip. Transcontinental through 
trains and branch lines make the Parks easy of access from all parts of the United States. For schedules 
and excursion fares to and between the National Parks apply to your local railway ticket ofHce or 
to any excursion agency, (jr write to the Piissenger Departments of the railroads which appear on the 
above map, as follows: 

Arizom.\ E.\sTERM Railro.\d Tucsoti. Ariz. 

Atchison, Topek.v & Sant.v Pe U.\ilway mg Railway Exchange, Chicago. III. 

Chic.\go & North We -iTERN Railw.w 226 West Jackson BoulevMr.l. Chicago. III. 

Chic.\go, Burli.vgton & Quincy R.mlroad Co 547 West Jackson Boulevard. Chicago. 111. 

Chicvgo, Milw.vukee & St. Paul R.mlway Railway E-Kchange, Chicago, III. 

Chicago, Rock Island & Pacific Railway Co L,a Salle Street Station. Chicago, 111. 

Colorado & Southern Railway Railw.iy E.Kchange Building, Denver. Colo. 

Denver & Rio Grande Railroad Co Equitable Building, Denver, Colo. 

Great Northern Railway Railroad Building, Fourth an i Jackson Streets, St. Paul. Minn. 

Gulf. Colorado & Santa Fe Railway Galves^ton, Tex. 

Illi.nois Central Railroad Central Station. Chicago. 111. 

Missouri P-vciFic Railw.w Railway E.Kchange Building, St. Louis. Mo. 

Northern PacificRailway Railroad Building, Fifth and Jackson Streets. St. Paul. Minn. 

San Pedro. Los Angeles & Salt Lake R.mlroad .... Pacific Electric Building. Los Angeles, Cal. 

Southern Pacific Co Flood Building, San Francisco. Cal. 

Union Pacific System Garland Building. ^S Eist Washington Street, Chicago, 111. 

Wab.-vsh Railway Railway E.Kchange Building, St. Louis. Mo. 

Western Pacific Railway Mills Building. San Francisco, Cal. 

For information about sojourning and traveling within the National Parks write to the Department 
of the Interior for the Information circular of the Park or Parks in which you arc interested. 



REMEMBER THAT 



THE NATIONAL PARKS BELONG TO YOU 

THE^' ARE THE GREAT NATIONAL PLAYGROUNDS OE THE AMERICAN PEOPLE 
FOR WHOM THEY ARE ADMINISTERED BY THE DEPARTMENT OE THE INTERIOR 

,4 WASIUXGTO.N : COVEK.V.ME.XT rUI.\TIX(; office : 1S17 



THE BIG TREE NATIONAL PARK 
T IT F 

SEQUOIA 

NATIONAL PARK 




Photograph by A. C. Pillsbury 



DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR 
Franklin K. Lane, Secretary 



NATIONAL PARK SER\7CE 




Photograph by Rodney L. Glisan 

View of the Big Arroyo from Sawtooth Peak 





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I'holugrupli by I . S. Cculogical Suncy 



It is iiiK JuKAL Park for CaiMping 



LAND OF GIANT TREES 




ATURH'S forest masterpiece is John Muir's designation of the 
giant tree after which is named the Sequoia National Park in 
middle eastern California. Here, within an area of two hundred 
and thirty-seven square miles, are found several large groves of 
the celebrated Sequoia Washingtoniana, popularl}' known and widely celebrated 
as the Big Tree of California. 

More than a million of these trees grow within the park's narrow confmes, 
many of them mere babes of a few hundred years, many sturdy youths of a 
thousand years, man\^ in the voung vigor of two or three thousand years, and 
a few in full maturity. The principal entrance is Visalia, California. 

Half a dozen miles away is the General Orant National Park, whose four 
square miles were set apart because they contained the General Grant Tree, 
second only in size and age to the patriarch of all, the General vSherman Tree. 

On vSequoia's favored slopes grow other monsters also. It is the park of 
magnificent trees of many kinds, and it is the park of birds. 

The vSequoia National Park is the gateway to one of the grandest scenic 
areas in this or any other land. Over its borders to the north and east lies 
a land of sublime nobility whose wild rivers and tortuous canyons, whose 
glacier-carved precipices and vast snowy summits culminating in the supreme 
altitude of Whitney, will make it some day surpassed in celebrity by none. 



THE BIGGEST THING ALIVE 





thousand 
diameter. 



F the 1,156,000 se- 
quoia trees, old and 
young, whicli form 
these groves, twelve 
exceed ten feet in 
]\Iuir states that a 



Photograph by Lmdky Eddy 

The General Sherman Tree 
The largest and oldest living thing in all the world 



diameter of twenty feet and a 
height of two hundred and 
seventy-five is perhaps the 
average for mature and favor- 
ably situated trees, while trees 
twenty-fi^'e feet in diameter and 
approaching three hundred in 
height are not rare. 

But the greatest trees have 
astonishing cHmensions: 

General Sherman : diameter, 
36.5 feet; height, 279.9 f^^t. 

General Grant: diameter, 
3,S feet; height, 264 feet. 

Abraham Lincoln : cUam- 
eter, 31 feet; height, 270 feet. 

California: diameter, 30 
feet; height, 260 feet. 

George Washington: diam- 
eter, 29 feet; height, 255 feet. 

A little effort will help you 
realize these dimensions. Meas- 
ure and stake in front of a 
church the diameter of the Gen- 
eral Sherman Tree. Then stand 
back a distance equal to the 
tree's height. Raise }-our e3'es 
slowly and imagine this huge 
trunk rising in front of the 
church. When you reach a point 
in the sky forty-five degrees up 
from the spot on which you 
stand vou will have the tree's 
height were it growing in front 
of your church. 



THE OLDEST THING ALIVE 



| |HH General Sherman 

TTree is the oldest 
li\ing tning. At the 
I birth of Moses it 
was probably a sapling. Its 
exact age can not be determined 
without counting the rings, but 
it is probably in excess of thirty- 
five hundred years. This looks 
back long before the beginning 
of human U story. When Christ 
was born it was a lusty youth 
of fifteen hundred summers. 

There are many tliousands 
of trees in the Sequoia National 
Park which were growing thrift- 
ilv when Christ was hiorn; hun- 
dreds which were flourishing 
while Babylon was in its prime ; 
several whiich antedated the pyr- 
amids on the Egyptian desert. 

John Muir counted four 
thousand rings on one prostrate 
giant. This tree probably 
sprouted while the Tower of 
Babel was still standing. 

The sequoia is regular and 
symmetrical in general form. 
Its powerful, stately trunk is 
purplish to cinnamon brown 
and rises without a branch a 
hundred or a hundred and fiftv 
feet — which is as high or higher 
than the tops of most forest 
trees. Its bulky limbs shoot 
boldly out on every side. Its 
foHage, the most feathery and 
deHcate of all the conifers, is 
densely massed. 

The wood is almost inde- 
structible except bv fire. 




Photograph by \V . L. Hu'.-r 

The Genkr.al Grant Tree 
Second in size and age only to the General Sherman Tree 




"PllC IN llli: \\\)C)1)V \\ U.DKRM 



WILDERNESS OF MONSTERS 




ERSONS who have seen the INIariposa Grove in the Vosemite National 
Park have seen seqnoias of the nol)lest type; bnt only hi the C.iant 
Forest of the Seqnoia National Park \\\\\ they see them in the 
impressive glorv of massed mnltitnde and wildest grandenr. To 
walk and wonder through these woods, even for a few hours, is to feel an 
emotion ^vhicll can be tlnplicated nowhere else. 

It is not the setinoias alone, as in the INIariposa Grove, that stir the soul. 
but the bewildering and chmatic repetition of monsters rising singly and 
superbly grouped from a dense and seemingly endless forest of noble growths of 
many other kinds. 

Without the sequoias this forest would be notable. "With their constant 
unexpected repetition the effect is dramatic, even breath-taking. Man>- of the 
very greatest trees are happened upon casually as the visitor winds through the 
bush-grown aisles of pine, and their sudden appearance is the more dramatic 
because of the freedom of their red pillared stems from the bright green flowing 
moss upon the trunks and branches of the uncountable pines. 

Until July, 191 6, when Congress appropriated :^ 50, 000 for the purchase of a 
part of the private holdings in the Giant I'orest, it was our national nnsfortune 
and peril that most of these monster trees remained the property c f individuals. 
The balance of the property was purchased for $20,000 by the National Geo- 
graphic Society and donated to the I'nite 1 States. 




M " 





Photograph by LindUy Eddy 



Vistas of the Giant Forest 
Many of these trees were growing thriftily when Christ was bom 




Pholoijuii'li by Liiidky Eddy 



Alta Pkak. from Moro Rock. 




Photograph by i i c / 



Alia Mhadows PstAR the Giam i ukhsi 




Photograph by Lindley tddy 



Sunset from the Rim of Marble Fork Canyon 




Photograph by C. H. Hamilton 
54590°— S— 17 2 



The Sierra Club in Camp 




Photograph by S. H. W'lUard 

Mount Brewer, "The Mountain Magnificent," From East Lake 




y'/.L-ii'i.Tij; /.■ byS. II. ]\ilhini 

Rae Lake, Probably the Most Beautiful in the High Sierra 




Photograph bv H. C. TiUr.:: 



The Celebrated Kings River Canyon 




Photograph by H. C. Tibbills 



University Peak from Kearsarge Pass 




PhotOijraph by Lmdlcy Eddy 



THE Pj, 
This trunk measures z88 feet. Sequoia wood is almost indestrua 




i GIANT 

pept by fire. This tree may have been prostrate for many centuries 




r 






LVi 



PhoU^a'dl^h l>y C. n HamiUoii 



Seijuoia is the park oF big trees ot" many kiiuis, and it is the park ot" birds 



"THE GREATER SEQUOIA" 




NJv can not tliiiik or speak of the vSecjiioia National J 'ark without 
inchuhniT the extraordinary scenic country lyini,^ beyond its boiuid- 
aries to the north and east. Not that tliere is mucli in conunon 
between the two, for the jjark marks the si]])remacy of forest lux- 
uriance and the outlyint; country the su])reniac\' of rock-scid])tin'erl canyf)n 
and snowy summit. 

And yet there is the conunon note of supremacy, each f)f its own kind. 
And there is the conunon note of continuity, for, from the lowest valley 
of the wooded park to the ])eak of our loftiest heij^ht, Mount Whitney, nature's 
painting runs the gamut. 'i*he ];arts are indivisible; to separate them is to cut 
in two the canvas of the Master. 

And so it is that those who know this land of cxi;l)crant climax have come 
to call it "The Greater Sequoia" in order to express nf)t the j)art limited by 
the park's official title but the whole as God made it. 

There is a bill now before Congress to enlarge the park boundaries so that 
they shall inclose it all. 




i'hutu,iral>h hy II. C. Tihinlts 

'I'm- (loi.Di-N Trout Cri;f,k 

The trout caught in this stream arc brilliantly ^olcicn. 7 hey are found nowhere else in the world 
except where transplanted from this stream 




Pliolograt^li by J. A'. Lc Clonic 

Tehipite Dome, 3,000 Fiet Sheer Aiuive ihe Kings River 




Photograph by S. H Willard 

GiovND Sentinel, Towering 3,500 ri;HT Above the River, is onk of the Features oe 

Kings River Canyon 



KINGS AND KERN CANYONS 




1{LL outside tlic park's boundaries and overlooking it from the 
east the amazing, craggy Sierra gives birth in glacial chambers 
to two noble rivers. A himdred thousand rivulets trickle from 
the everlasting snows; ten thousand resultant brooks roar down 
the rocky slopes; hundreds of resultant streams swell tlieir turl)ulent, trout- 
haunted currents. 

One of these rivers, the Kings, flows west, paralleling the northern boundary 
of the park. The other, the Kern, flows south, paralleling its eastern boundary. 
The Kings l-^ver Canvon and the Canyon of the Kern are practically 
matchless for the wild quality of their beauty and the majesty of tlieir setting. 
The traveler goes home to plan his return, for this is a country whose peculiar 
charm lavs an enduring clutch upon desire. "The Greater Sequoia" has few 
visitors yet — but they are worshipers. 

Unlike many areas of extreme rocky character, this is not specially difficult 
to travel ; it curiously adapts itself to trails. It is an ideal land for the camper. 
But one must go well equipped. There must be good guides, good horses, 
and plenty of warm clothing. The difference here between a good and an 
indifferent equipment is the difference between satisfaction and misery. 




I'lu.tooraH' byS. 11. Millard 

Roaring Fork Falls on the South Fork, ok thh Kings 




m 





Photograph by H. C. TibbiUs 

Here the Sierra Has Massed Her Mountains; Tumbled Them Willfully, 
Recklessly, Into One Titanic, Sprawling Heap 




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The Summit of Mulm Whitney, Nearly Ihki i Aliii^ I In, 



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Photograph by Emerson Hough 

Summit of Mount Whitney. The Stone Shelter on Molnt Whitney's Summit j 



THE NATIONAL PARKS AT A GLANCE 

Number, 17; Total Area, 9,774 Square Miles. Arranged chronologically in the order of their creation. 



XATIOXAL PARK 
and Date 



Hot Sprin'gs Res- 
ervatiox 

1832 

Yellowstoxe 



YOSEMITE 

1890 

Sequoia 
1890 

Gexeral Grant 

1890 

MouxT Rainier 
1S99 

Crater Lake 
1902 

Platt 
1904 

Mesa Verde 
1906 

Glacier 
1910 



LOCATIOX 



Middle 
Arkansas 



Xorth- 

\vestem 

Wyoming 



Middle 
eastern 
California 

Middle 
eastern 

California 

Middle 
California 

West 

central 

Washington 

Southern 
Oregon 

Southern 
Oklahoma 

Southern 
Colorado 

North- 
western 
Montana 



AREA 



square 
miles 



Rocky Mouxtaix Northern 
iQi- Colorado 

Hawaii Hawaii 

1916 i 



Lassex Volcanic Northern 

1916 California 

MorxT McKixLEY South 

1917 central 



3.348 



DISTIXCTIVE CHARACTERISTICS 



324 



249 



I>2 



1.534 



398 



118 



124 



Alaska 



46 hot springs possessing curative properties— Many hotels 
and boarding houses in adjacent city of Hot Springs — 
Bathhouses under public control. 

More geysers than in all rest of world together — Boiling 
springs — Mud volcanoes — Petrified forests — Grand Canyon 
of the Yellowstone, remarkable for gorgeous colorin'-j- — • 
Large lakes and waterfalls— Vast wilderness inhabited by 
deer, elk, bison, moose, antelope, bear, mountain sheep, 
etc.; greatest wild bird and animal preser\-e in world. 

Valley of world-famed beauty— Lofty cliflfs— Romantic vis- 
tas — \\'aterfalls of extraordinary' height— 3 groves of big 
trees— I-arge areas of snowy peaks— Waterwheel falls. 

The Big Tree National Park — 12,000 sequoia trees over 10 
feet in diameter, some 25 to 36 feet in diameter. 



Created to preserve the celebrated General Grant Tree, 35 
feet in diameter — 6 miles from Sequoia National Park. 

Largest accessible single-peak glacier system — 28 glaciers, 
some of large size — 48 square miles of glacier, 50 to 1,000 
feet thick — Remarkable subalpine wild-flower fields. 

Lake of extraordinan.- blue in crater of extinct volcano, no 
visible inlet, or outlet — Sides 1,000 feet high. 

Stdphur and other springs possessini; curative properties — 
Under Government regulation. 

Most notable and best-preser^-ed prehistoric cliff dwellings 
in United States, if not in the world. 

Rugged mountain region of unsurpassed alpine character — 
250 glacier-fed lakes of romantic beauty— 60 small gla- 
ciers — Peaks of unusual shape — Precipices thousands of 
feet deep — Fine trout fishing. 

Heart of the Rockies — Snowy Range, peaks 11, 000 to 14,250 
feet altitude — Remarkable records of glacial period. 

Two active volcanoes. Mauna Loa. largest in the world, 
and Kilauea, whose lake of bubbling lava is world famed— 
A third volcano. Haleakala, whose crater, 8 miles wide, 
contains many cones. 

Active volcano— Lassen Peak. 10.437 feet in altitude- 
Cinder Cone, 6.907 feet — Hot springs — Mud geysers. 

Highest Mountain in North America— Rises higher above 
surrounding countr>' than any mountain in the world. 



National Parks of less jxjpular interest are : 

Casa Grande Ruin, 1889, Arizona Prehistoric Indian ruin. 

Wind Cave, 1903, South Dakota Large natural cavern. 

Sullys Hill, 1904, North Dakota Wooded hilly tract on Devils Lake. 



HOW TO REACH THE NATIONAL PARKS 






^^i^sA ^-—^ I %S».dC,., S DAK, 



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. VL^i, I 0\w A 









■'■'^•^'^•^ t"-^--'2-M- ^^<C ^^5C» j/^ ^=^^^^^L.~1^^r 1/ 







THE HAWAIIAN ISLANDS 



T E 

^^ Ix; 



\\'-^'^-^'P^^o^^^iJ^YJoO=. 



The map shows the location of all of our National Parks and their principal railroad connections. 
The traveler niav work out his routes to suit himself. Low round trip excursion fares to the American 
Rockv Mountain region and Pacific Coa.st may be availed of in visiting the Ncitional Parks tiuring 
their respective seasons, thus materially reducing the cost of the trip. Transcontinental through 
tr.iins and branch lines make the Parks easy of access from all parts of the Unitetl vStates. For schedules 
and excursion fares to and between the National Parks apply to your local railway ticket otTice or 
to an V excursion agency, or write to the Passenger Departments of the railroads which appear on the 
above map, as follows; 

Arizon.\ E.xsterm R.\ilro.\d Tucson, Ariz. 

Atchison, Topi5K.\ & S.\NT.\ Fij U.Mi.w.vY iitg Railway Exchange, Chicago. III. 

Chic.vgo & XoRTH WusTiCKN R.viLw.w 2.'5 West ,1 .loksou Houlcvard. Chicago, 111. 

Chicago, BUKLINOTON & QUIN1.V R\ii,KO.\D Co 547 West Jackson Bouk-varil, Chicago. 111. 

Chic.\go, 'MiL\v.\UKEii: & St. 1\\UL Railway Railway Exfh.inije. Chicago, 111. 

Chicago. Rock Island & Pacific R.ULWAY Co La Salle Stre.M Station. Chicago, 111. 

Colorado & SouTHiCKN' Railway Railw.iy Exchmgc Mnihiing. Pciivcr.Colo. 

Dg.vver & Rio Grandk Railroad Co Equitable Huildini;, Denyer. Colo. 

Gre.\t Northern Railway R.iilroad Buil.Iing, Fourth an 1 J.ick^ou Streets. St. Paul. Minn. 

Gulf. Colorado & Santa 1'"e Railway Galveston, Tex. 

Illinois Central Railroad Central Station. Chicago. 111. 

Missouri Pacific Railway Riihviy Exchiui;e BuiUlins. St. Louis, Mo. 

Northern P.vciFicR.viLWAY Railro.id Building. Fiith anil . I .ickson Streets. St. Paul. Minn. 

San Pedro. Los Angeles & Salt Lake Railroad .... Pai-iti.- Electric BuiUliiiL;. \.o<- Angeles. Cal. 

SouTHiCRN Pacific Co Floo 1 Builliim. .San Francisco. Cal. 

Union P.vcific System Garlin 1 Buillinj. ^s Ei-t Washin-tDU Street, Chicago. 111. 

Wahash Railway Railway Exchini;c lUiililiug. St. Louis. AIo. 

Western Pacific Railway Mill> Building. San Francisco. Ca!. 

For information about sojourning and tr.iveling within the National Parks write to the Department 
of the Interior for the Information circul.ir of the Park or Parks in which you are interested. 



RF.MF.MBER TIl.XT 



THE NATIONAL PARKS BELONG TO YOU 

TH1•.^ ARE THE GREAT NATIONAL PLAYGROUNDS OF THE AMERICAN PEOPLE 
FOR WHOM THEY ARE ADMINISTERED BY THE DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR 

5j WASHIXCTO.N : GOVERX,ME.\T PraXTIXi; OIFICE : 1917 




MOUNT RAINIER 

NATIONAL PARK 



DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR 

Franklin K. I,ane, Secretary 



NATIONAL PARK SERVICE 




Plu'kH,ral^hhvCuH,< i'-- ^filler 

A Rippling Rivir of Ick 400 Fhet Thick Flowing from the Shining Summit 
Looking from a wild-flower slope down upon the celebrated Nisqually Glacier and up at Columbia Crest 




Pkotoyrapk by Curln Cf MilUr 



ICntrance to Mount Rainier National Park 



THE FROZEN OCTOPUS 



I [ROM the Cascade Mountains in Washinj^ton rises a series of vol- 

F canoes which once blazed across the sea like giant beacons. To- 
day, their fires quenched, they suggest a stalwart band of Knights 
l| of the Ages, helmeted in snow, armored in ice, standing at parade 
upon a carpet patterned gorgeously in wild flowers. 

Easily chief of this knightly band is Mount Rainier, a giant towering 
14,408 feet above tidewater in Puget Sounrl. Home-bound sailors far at sea 
mend their courses from his silver summit. 

This mountain has a glacier system far exceeding in size and impressive 
beauty that of any other in the United vStates. From its snow-covered summit 
twenty-eight rivers of ice pour slowly down its sides. Seen upon the map, 
as if from an aeroplane, one thinks of it as an enormous frozen octopus stretch- 
ing icy tentacles down upon every side among the rich gardens of ^vild flowers 
and splendid forests of firs and cedars Vjelow. 





,1^ 



Photograph by Curtis & M:'/rr 

Above Every Curve of the Paradise Road Looms the Great White Mountain 




Pholonraph by Curtis & AJ iu,:r 

From Under the Shadowy Firs of Van Trump Park It Glistens Startlingly 




PhoUhjraph by Curtis <> \filtcr 

Looking into a Grfat Crevasse in the Stevens Gi acier 
Crevasses arc causcil by the switrer morion ot the niidi.lle than the sides. This ice is 400 feet deep 



THE GIANT RIVERS OF ICE 



^IVERY winter the moisture-laden winds from the Pacific, suddenly 

E cooled against its summit, deposit upon Rainier's top and sides 
enormous snows. These, settling in the mile-wide crater which 
i| was left after a great explosion in some prehistoric age carried 
away perhaps two thousand feet of the volcano's former height, press with 
overwhelming weight down the mountain's sloping sides. 

Thus are born the glaciers, for the snow under its own pressure quickly 
hardens into ice. Through twenty-eight valleys, self -carved in the solid rock, 
flow these rivers of ice, now turning, as rivers of water turn, to avoid the 
harder rock strata, now roaring over precipices like congealed water falls, 
now rippling, like water currents, over rough bottoms, pushing, pouring 
relentlessly on until they reach those parts of their courses where warmer 
air turns them into rivers of water. 

There are forty-eight square miles of these glaciers. 




t'huKHirnpii In- CuHi^ <t' Miller 

Snout of Nisqually Glacier Where the Nisqually River Begins 

.04090^— MR— 17 2 




rh,'t.\'r,tth hy I'lirlis i''' M iUrr 



CLOSt TO THE SuMMir OK MoUNl' R.MNIKU 




PholOyjrapli by Curtis & M:!Ict 

Leaving Camp of the Clouds kor the Summit 

Nearly every day parries start for the long hani tramp up the ghiciers to Cohimhia Crest. The chmbers 
must dress warmh-, paint their faces and hands to protect the skin from sunburn, and eat sparingly. 
Dark classes must be worn. None but tiie hard\- mountain climbers attempt this arduous tramp. 



IN AN ARCTIC WONDERLAND 




OUNT RAINIER 
is nearly three, miles 
high measured from 
sea level. It rises 
nearly two miles from its im- 
mediate base. Once it was a 
finished cone like the famous 
Fujiyama, the sacred mountain 
of Japan. Then it was prob- 
ably 16,000 feet high. Indian 
legends tell of the great erup- 
tion. 

In addition to the twenty- 
eight named glaciers there are 
others yet unnamed and little 
known. Few visitors have 
seen the wonderful north side, 
a photograph of which will be 
found on a later page. It pos- 
sesses endless possibilities for 
development and easy grades to 
Columbia Crest, the wonderful 
snow-covered summit which is 
the second highest summit in 
the United vStates. 

Many interesting things 
might be t(jld of the glaciers 
were there space. For example, 
several species of minute insects 
live in the ice, hopping about 
like tiny lleas. They are harder 
to see than the so-called sand 
fleas at the seashore jjecause 
much smaller. .Slender, dark- 
brown worms live in countless 
milHons in the surface ice. 
Microscopic rose-colored plants 
also thrive in such great num- 
bers that they tint the surface 
here and there, making what is 
commonly called "red snow." 




raph by Curli^ cr" Milkr 

Coasting at Paradise Valley 




JVioiOsiraph by Curtis .^ MiU.r . 

One of the Great Spectaclks ok America Is Mount Rainier, from Indian HenW' 




[TING Ground, Glistening Against the Sky and Pictukeu Again in Mirror Lake 



GLACIER AND WILD FLOWER 




ROBABLV no glacier of large size in the world is so quickly, easily, 
and comfortably reached as the most striking and celebrated' 
though by no means the largest, of Mount Rainier's, the Nisqually 
Glacier. It descends directly south from the snowy summit in a 
Ion- curve, its lower fniger reaching into parkUke glades of luxuriant wild 
Howers. From Paradise Park one may step directly upon its fissured surface. 
The Xisqually Glacier is five miles long and, at Paradise Park, is half 
a mile wide. Glistening white and fairly smooth at its shining source on the 
mountain's summit, its surface here is soiled with dust and broken stone and 
squeezed and rent by terrible pressure into fantastic shapes. Innumerable 
crevasses, or cracks many feet deep, break across it caused bv the more rapid 
movement of the glacier's middle than its edges; for glaciers, like rivers of 
water, develop swifter currents nearer midstream. 

Professor Le Conte tells us that the movement of Nisqually Glacier in 
summer averages, at midstream, about sixteen inches a day. It is far less at 
the margins, its speed being retarded by the friction of the sides. 

Like all glaciers, the Nisqually gathers on its surface masses of rock with 
which it strews its sides just as rivers of water strew their banks with rocks and 
floating debris. These are called lateral moraines, or side moraines. Some- 
times glaciers build lateral moraines miles long. The Nisquallv ice is four hun- 
dred feet thick in places. 

The rocks which are carried in midstream to the end of the glacier and 
dropped when the ice melts are called the terminal moraine. 

The end, or snout, of the glacier thus always lies among a great mass of 
rocks and stones. The Nisqually River generally flows from a cave in the end 
of the Nisciually Glacier's snout. The river is dark brown when it first appears 
because it carries sediment and powdered rock which, however, it soon deposits, 
becoming clear. 

But this brief picture of the IMount Rainier National Park would miss its 
loveHest touch without some notice of the wild-flower parks lying at the base, 
and often reaching far up between the icy fingers, of !dount Rainier. 

"Above the forests," \\Tites John :duir, the celebrated naturaHst, •'there 
is a zone of the loveliest flowers, fifty miles in circuit and nearly two miles 
wide, so closely planted and luxurious that it seems as if nature, glad to make 
an open space between woods so dense and ice so deep, were economizing the 
precious ground and trying to see how many of her darlings she can get 
together in one mountain A\Teath— daisies, anemones, columbine, erythroniums, 
larkspurs, etc., among which we wade knee-deep and waist-deep, the bright 
corollas in unxiads touching petal to petal. Altogether this is the richest 
subalpine garden I have ever found, a perfect flower elysium." 




Photograph by Curfis & Miller 

Mount Adams from Mount Rainier — Forty Miles Southward 




"" 4) 



X ° 



k»iam$-*M^ 










J'lioluorapli by Ciirli^ (■•' Miller 

Beautiful Paradise Valllv Siiuvvin(j the 'Iatoosh Ridge 




Photograph by Curlii ('■f MMcr 

Timber-Line and Flower Fields in Beautiful Paradise Valley 




Pli.'h>i;r,iphby Ctct!, ^- .1/...... 

1"he Roads Luad to the Glacurs Through Forests of Fir and Cedar 

20 MR 




Cratkr J.ake (Uni-ortunatkly Namf.d) a North-Side Cii;ivi oi Bkau'iy 




I'kulugraph by Curtis & Miller 



The Roads Are ADiMH<ABLE 



EASIEST GLACIERS TO SEE 




HE Mount Rainier National Park is so accessible that one nia\' 
get a brief close-by glimpse in one day. The new railroad slogan, 
" lunir hours from Tacoma to the Glaciers," tells tlie story. 

But no one inilcss under dire necessity should think of being so 
near one of the greatest spectacles in nature witliout sparing several days for 
a real look; several weeks is none too long. Thousands of Americans in nor- 
mal vears go to Switzerland to see glaciers nuicli harder to reach and far less 
satisfactory to study. 

An excellent road will carry the visitor by autostage from the railway 
terminus to the several comfortable hotels and camps, most of which are so 
located that the ])rincipal scenic jx^ints on the south side may be easily reached. 
Pedestrians and horseback riders also follow trails through the gorgeous 
wild-ilower parks. Paradise Valley, Indian Henrys Hunting Ground, A^an 
Trump Park, Cowlitz Park, Ohanapecosh River and its hot springs, Summer- 
land, Grand Park, Moraine Park, Elysian Fields, Spray Park, Natural Bridge, 
Cataract Basin, St. Andrews Park, Glacier Basin, and others; developing new 
points of view of wonderful glory. 




Photograph by Curtis ("-^ Miller 



National Park. Inn 



THE NATIONAL PARKS AT A GLANCE 

Number, 17; Total Area, 9,774 Square Miles. Arranged chronologically in the order of their creation. 



NATIONAL PARK 
and Date 


location 


AREA 

in 
square 
miles 


Hot Springs Res- 
ervation 
1832 


Middle 
Arkansas 


i;-2 


Yellowstone 

1872 


North- 
western 
Wyoming 


3,348 


YOSEMITE 

1890 


Middle 
eastern 
California 


1,125 


Sequoia 
1890 


Middle 
eastern 
California 


252 


General Grant 
1890 


Middle 
California 


4 


Mou.vT Rainier 
1899 


West 

central 

Washington 


324 


Crater Lake 
1902 


Southern 
Oregon 


249 


Platt 
1904 


Southern 
Oklahoma 


i;^ 


Mesa Verde 
1906 


vSouthern 
Colorado 


77 


Glacier 
1910 


North- 
western 
Montana 


1,534 

1 


Rocky Mountain 
1915 


Northern 
Colorado 


398 


Hawaii 
1916 


Hawaii 


118 


Lassen Volcanic 
1916 


Northern 
California 


124 


Mount McKiNLEY 
1917 


vSouth 

central 

Alaska 


2, 200 



DISTINCTIVE CHARACTERISTICS 



46 hot springs possessing curative properties— Many hotels 
and boarding houses in adjacent city of Hot Springs- 
Bathhouses under j)ublic control. 

More ge)-sers than in all rest of world together— Boiling 
springs— Mud volcanoes-Petrified forests— Grand Canyon 
of the Yellowstone, remarkable for gorgeous coloring- 
Large lakes and waterfalls— Vast wilderness inhabited by 
deer, elk, bison, moose, anteloi.e, bear, mountain sheep 
etc.; greatest wild bird and animal preserve in world. 

Valley of world-famed beauty-Lofty clifTs-Romantic vis- 
tas—Waterfalls of extraordinar)' height— 3 groves of bi- 
trees— Large areas of snowy peaks— Waterwheel falls. " 

The Big Tree National Park-12,000 .sequoia trees over 10 
feet in diameter, some 25 to .36 feet in diameter. 

Created to preserve the celebrated General Grant Tree ?- 
feet m diameter— 6 miles from Sequoia National Park. 

Largest accessible single-peak glacier system— 28 glaciers 
some of large size— 48 square miles of glacier, 50 to 1,000 
feet thick— Remarkable subalpine wild-flower fields.' 

Lake of extraordinary blue in crater of extinct volcano no 
visible inlet, or outlet— .Sides 1,000 feet high. 

Sulphur and other springs possessing curative properties- 
Under Government regulation. 

Most notable and best-preserved prehistoric clifT dwellings 
in United States, if not in the world. 



I, 534 Rugged mountain region of unsurpassed alpine character— 
250 glacier-fed lakes of romantic beautv— 60 small gla- 
ciers—Peaks of unusual shape— Precipices thousands of 
feet deep— Fine trout fishing. 

Heart of the Rockies— Snowy Range, peaks 11, 000 to 14 2;;o 
feet altitude— Remarkable records of glacial period. 

Two active volcanrjcs, Mauna Loa, largest in the world 
and Kilauea, whose lake of bubbling lava is world famed— 
A third volcano, Haleakala, whose crater, 8 miles wide 
contains many cones. 

Active volcano Lassen Peak, 10.437 feet in altitude- 
Cinder Cone, 6,907 feet— Hot .springs— Mud geysers. 

Highest Mountain in North America Rises higher above 
surrounding country than any mountain in the world. 



National Parks of less popular interest are: 

Casa Grande Ruin, 1889, Arizona Prehistoric Indian ruin. 

Wind Cave, 1903. South Dakota L.rge natural cavern. 

Sullys Hill, 1904. North Dakota Wooded hilly tract on Devils Lake 



HOW TO REACH THE NATIONAL PARKS 






D 



^f 




The map shows the location of all of our National Parks and their principal railroad connections. 
The traveler may work out his routes to suit himself. Low round-trip excursion fares to the American 
Rocky Moimtain region and Pacific Coast may be availed of in visiting the National Parks during 
their respective seasons, thus materially reducing the cost of the trip. Transcontinental through 
tr lins and branch lines make the Parks easy of access from all parts of the United States. I'or schedules 
and excursion fares to and between the National Parks apply to your local railway ticket office or 
to any excursion agency, or write to the Piissenger Departments of the railroads which appear on the 
above map, as follows: 

Arizon.\ E.vsterx R-\ilro.\d Tucson, Ariz. 

Atchison, ToPEK.v & S.\NT.\ Fe R.MLWAY n 19 Railway Exchange, Chicago, 111. 

Chicago & North WEsTERfi R.\iLvv.\Y 22'j West .Tackson Boulevard. Chicago, III. 

Chicago. Burlington & QuixcY Railroad Co 547 West Jackson Boulevard, Chicago, 111. 

Chicago, AIiLWAUKEE & St. Paul Railway Railway Exchange. Chicago, 111. 

Chicago, Rock I.SLAND & Pacific Railway Co La Salle .Street .Station, Chicago, 111. 

CoLOR.\DO & Southern Railway Railw.iv Exchange Building, Denver, Colo. 

Denver & Rio Grande Railroad Co Equitable Building, Denver, Colo. 

Great Northern Railway Railroad Building, Fourth a'll Jackson Streets, St. Paul, Minn. 

Gulf, Colorado & Santa Fe Railway Galveston, Tex. 

Illi.nois Central Railroad Central Station, Chicago, 111. 

Missouri Pacific Railway Railway E-Xchange Building, St. Louis. Mo. 

Northern PacificRailway Railroad Building, Fifth and Jackson Streets, St. Paul. Minn. 

S.\N Pedro. Los Angeles & Salt Lake Railroad . . . . Pacific Ivlcctric Building, Los Angeles. Cal. 

Southern Pacific Co FIoo 1 Building, San Francisco, Cal. 

Union Pacific System Garl.ind Building, 58 East \Va--hington Street, Chicago, 111. 

W.\BASH Railw.'vy Railway Ivxch.iuu'c Building, .St. Louis. Mo. 

Wester.n P-\cific Railway MilL BuiUiing, .San Francisco, Cal. 

For information about sojourning and traveling within the National Parks write to the Department 
of the Interior for the Information circular of the Park or Parks in which you are interested. 

REMEMBER THAT 

THE NATIONAL PARKS BELONG TO YOU 

THEY ARE THE GREAT NATIONAL PLAYGROUNDS OE THE AMERICAN PEOPLE 
FOR WHOM THEY ARE ADMINISTERED BY THE DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR 

14 WASHINGTO.N : (.iOVEUXME-NT riUXTl.NG OITICE : J917 




CRATER 
LAKE 

NATIONAL PARK 



DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR 
Franklin K. Lane, Secretary 



NATIONAL PARK SERVICE 




Pholograph hy Fred H.Kiscr, Porlland, Oregon 

Looking Into Its Vast Depths Is Like Looking Into the Limitless Sky 




Photograph by L' . S. Rcctauiatiuii Service 

The Phantom Ship — Stranded On a Magic Shore 



THE LAKE OF MYSTERY 




RATER lyAKI^ is the deejjest and the bluest fresh-water lake in 
the world. It measures two thousand feet of solid water, and the 
intensity of its color is unbelievable even while you look at it. 
Its cliffs from sk}^ line to surface average over a thousand feet high. 
It has no visible inlet or outlet, for it occupies the hole left when, in the dim 
ages before man, a volcano collapsed and disappeared within itself. 

It is a gem of wonderful color in a setting of pearly lavas relieved l)y patches 
of pine green and snow white — a gem which changes hue with even/ atmospheric 
change and every shift of light. 

There are crater lakes in oth.er lands; in Italy, for instance, in Germany, 
India, and Hawaii. The one lake of its kind in the United States is by far 
the finest of its kind in the world. It is one of the most distinguished spots 
in a land notable for the nobility and distinction of its scenery. 

Crater Lake lies in southern Oregon. The volcano wliose site it has 
usurped was one of a "noble band of fire mountains which, like beacons, once 
blazed along the Pacific Coast." Because of its unique character and quite 
extraordinary beauty it was made a national park in 1902. 




Photograph by U . S. Reclamation Service 

The Sun Plays Wonderful Tricks With Lights and Shadows 



ii 



THE SEA OF SILENCE' 




EARLY every visitor to Crater Lake, even the most prosaic, 
describes it as mysterious. To those who have not seen it, the 
adjective is difficult to analyze, but the fact remains. 

The explanation may lie in Crater Lake's remarkable color 
scheme. The infinite range of grays, silvers, and pearls in the carved and 
fretted lava walls, the glinting white of occasional snow patches, the olives 
and pine greens of woods and mosses, the vivid, cloud-flecked azure of the 
sky, and the lake's thousand shades of blue, from the brilliant turquoise of its 
edges to the black blue of its depths of deepest shadow, strike into silence 
the least impressionable observers. "The Sea of Silence," Joaquin Miller 
calls Crater Lake, 

With changing conditions of sun and air, this amazing spectacle changes 
key with the passing hours; and it is hard to say which is its most rapturous 
condition of beauty, that of cloudless sunshine or that of twilight shadow; 
or of what intermediate degree, or of storm or of shower or of moonlight or 
of starlight. At times the scene changes magically while you watch. 




I'h.il.iiiral'h by U. S. RrcLnudtinti Scriicf 

Playing a Three-Pound Trout From the Rocky Shore 




Photograph by Fred H. Kiser. Portland, Oregon 

A Poem in Grays and Greens and Unbelievable Blues 




Photograph by Fred H. Kiser, Portland, Oregon 

Cuffs of a Thousand Pearly Hues Fantastically Carved 



:*Viy- 



'■^ ■ ^-^ * 




%,S 






*5t^ 






:.v^- 







Mt Mazama. 



-.^■T^ 


^^ Cr 


ater Lake . 


'---.. 


"""^^ 


/^^r'==i~!^!l 




■ — 


Sed Level. 



STORY OF MOUNT MAZAMA 




IvW of the astoiiisliiiig i)ictures which i^eoloL^y has restored for us 
of this world in its makini^ are so startliiit^ as that of Mount 
Mazama, which once reared a smokinj^ peak many thousands of 
feet above the present peaceful level of Crater Lake. There 
were many noble volcanoes in the range: Mount Baker, Mount Rainier, 
Mount Adams, Mount St. Helens, Lassen Peak, Mount Ma/ama, Mount 
Hood, Mount vShasta. Once their vomitings ])uilt the great Cascade Moun- 
tains. To-day, cold and silent, they stand wrapped in shining armor of ice. 

ViwX. not all. One is missing. Where Mount Mazama reared his noble 
head, there is nothing — until you climb the slopes once his foothills, and gaze 
spelll)oun(l over the l)roken lava cliffs into the lake which lies magically where 
once he stood. The story of the undoing of Mount Mazama, of the birth of 
this wonder lake, is one of the great stories of the earth. 

Mount Mazama fell into itself. It is as if some vast cavern formed in 
the earth's seething interior into which the entire volcano suddenly slipped. 
The imagination of Dore might have reproduced some hint of the titanic 
spectacle of the disappearance of a mountain fifteen thousand feet in height. 

When Mount Mazama collapsed into this vast hole, leaving clean cut the 
edges which to-day are Crater Lake's surrounding cliffs, there was instantly 
a surging back. The crum1)Hng lavas were forced again up the huge chimney. 

But not all the way. The vent became jammed. In three spots only did 
the fires emerge again. Three small volcanoes formed in the hollow. 

But these in turn soon choked and cooled. During succeeding ages 
springs poured their waters into the vast cavity, and Crater Lake was born. 
Its rising waters covered two of the small volcanic cones. The third still 
emerges. It is called Wizard Island. 




Sentinel Cloudcb 




Glacier Pfc. Llao "ock 

Grouse Hill 



'/////^,. 



i)4i'Ji)°— CL— 17 2 




I'Jiokhjni/^li iy Fred II. Kixr, Portlaml. Onyoi, 



Sunset 



THE LEGEND OF LLAO 



ICCORDING to the legend of the Klamath and iModoc IiKhaiis 

A the mystic land of ("iaywas was the home of the great god Llao. 
His throne in the infinite depths of the bine waters was sur- 
I rounded by his warriors, giant craw^sh able to lift great claws 
out of the water and seize too venturesome enemies on the clilT tops. 

\\'ar broke out with SkcU, the god of the neighboring Klamath Marshes. 
Skell was killed and his heart used for a ball by Llao's monsters. But an 
eagle, one of Skell's servants, captured it in flight, and escaped with it; and 
Skell's body grew again around his Hving heart. Once more he was powerful, 
and once more he waged war against the God of the Lake. 

Then Llao was captured; but he was not so fortunate. liKni the liighcst 
clilT his body was torn into fragments and cast into the lake, and eaten by 
his own monsters under the belief that it was Skell's body. Rut wlien Llao's 
head was thrown in, the monsters recognized it, and would not cat it. 

Llao's head still lies in the lake, and white men call it Wizard Island. 
And the cliff where Llao was torn to pieces is named Llao Rock. 

10 c^ 




l-'holograph by Frid H. Kistr , Porlland, Urtgon 

OiTKN THE Treks Are as Gnarled and Knoited as the Cliffs They Grow On 

II CL 




Photograph by U. S. Kcchimiiluot Service 

Gkneral ViKw Across Cratfr Lake Near Sentinel Rock, Show 
These cliffs vary from a thousand to twelve hundred feet high, occasionally rising to two thousand fee 




•: Northern Shore Line, with Red Cone in the Middle Distance 

e. The first effect of a view across the lake is to fill the observer with awe and a deep sense of mystery 




Photograph by U. S. Reclamattun Servtn 

Looking Down Into the Crater of Wizard Island 



VIEWED FROM THE RIM 




EVERAL days may profitably be spent upon the rim of the lake, 
which one may travel afoot or on horseback. The endless variety 
of lava formations and of color variation may be here studied to 
the best advantage. 
The tem.perature of the water has been the subject of much investigation. 
The average observations of years show that, whatever may be the surface 
variations, tlie temperature of the Avater below a depth of three hundred feet 
continues approximately 39 degrees the year around. This disposes of the 
theory tliat the depths of the lake are affected by volcanic heat. 

"Apart from its attractive scenic features," writes J. vS. Diller of the United 
States Geological Survey, "Crater Lake affords one of the most interesting 
and instructive fields for the study of volcanic geology to be found anywhere 
in the world. Considered in all its aspects, it ranks with the Grand Canyon 
of the Colorado, the Yosemite Valley, and the Falls of Niagara, but with an 
individuahty that is superlati\-e." 




Photograph by Fred H. Kiser, Portland, Oregon 

Sand Creek, Showing Pinnacles Resulting From Erosion 



THE MINE OF BEAUTY 





p/i>./> 



rROUT Run From One to Six I'ounus 



RATER LAKlv is seen 
in its glory from a 
hmiich. One may float 
for days upon its sur- 
face Avitliout sating one's sense of 
delighted surj^risc; for all is new 
again with every change of light. 
The Phantom Shi]), for instance, 
sometimes wholly disappears. 
Now it is there, and a few minutes 
after, with neAV slants of light, it 
is gone — a phantom indeed. vSo 
it is \nth many headlands and 
ghostlike palisades. 

This lake was not discovered 
until 1853. Ivleven Califomians 
had undertaken once more the 
search for the famous, j^erhaps 
fabulous, Lost Cabin Mine. For 
many years parties had been 
searching the Casca(ies ; again they 
had come into the Rogue River 
region. W^ith all th.eir secrecy 
their object became known, and 
a party of Oregonians was hastily 
organized to stalk them and share 
their find. The Californians dis- 
co\ered tlie pursuit and dix-ided 
their party. Tlie Oregonians did 
the same. It became a game of 
liide-and-seek. When provisions 
were nearlv exhausted all the par- 
ties joined forces. 

"Suddenly we came in sight 
of water," writes J. \V. Hillman, 
then tlie leader of the combined 
party; "we were nuich surprised, 
as we did not expect to see any 
lakes and did not know but that 
we had come in sight of and close 
to Klamath Lake. Not until nn- 




Pholoijraphby Fred H. Kiur, I'oiilan.l. (),,,ioii 

The Favorii k Way id Si;h iiii-; Sciii.rriiRi:i) Cuffs Is From a Motor I^oat 



mule stopped within a few feet of the rim of Crater Lake (Hd I look down, 
and if I had l^een riding a blind mule I firmly believe I would have ridden over 
the edge to death." 

It is interesting that the discoverers quarreled on the choice of a name, 
dividing between Mysterious Lake and Deep Blue Lake. The advocates of Deep 
Blue Lake won the vote, but in 1869 a visiting party from Jacksonville renamed 
tit Crater Lake, and this, by natural right, became its title. 

HOTELS AND CAMPS 

i Partly because it is off the main Hue of travel, but chiefly because its 
lunique attractions are not yet well known. Crater Lake has been seen by com- 
jparatively few. Under concession from the Department of the Interior, a com- 
Ifortable camp is operated five miles from the lake and a newly completed hotel 
land camp on the lake's rim. Equipments for camping may be hired. 

I 19 CL 



HARD FIGHTING TROUT 




HIS magnilicent, body of cold fresh water originallv contained 
no fish of any kind. A small crustacean was found in large num- 
bers in its waters, the suggestion, no doubt, upon which was founded 
the Indian legend of the gigantic crawfish which formed the body- 
guard of the great god Llao. 

In 1888 Will G. Steel brought trout fry from a ranch fift}- miles away, 

but no fish were seen in I 
the lake for more than 
a dozen years. Then a 
few were taken, one of 
which was fully thirty 
inches long. 

Since then trout have 
been taken in ever- 
increasing numbers. 
Thev are best caught 
by fly casting from the 
shore. For this reason 
the fishing is not always 
the easiest. Often the 
slopes are not propitious 
for casting. One has 
to climb upon outlying 
rocks to reach the 
waters of best depth. 
But the results usually 
justify the elTort. The 
trout range from one to 
ten pounds in weight. 
Anglers of experience in 
western fishing testify 
that, pound for pound, 
the rainbow trout taken 
in the cold deep waters 
of Crater Lake are the 
hardest-fighting trout 
of all. 

Many fish are also 
taken from rowboats. 
A trolling spoon will 

Photograph by U. S. Kiclitmnlion Service 

Camimnc; Out Back ok ihf Rim often lure large fish. 





Photograph by U. S. Reclamation Service 

At the Foot of the Trail From Crater Lake Lodge 




PL'U',!rjf^hhv FrcJ II. Ki.-rr. I\'r:!.,nJ. Orr.nvi 

Across the Lake From the Rim Road 




Crater Lake Lodge on the Rim, i,ooo Feet Above the Lake 

The lounge occiipics the entire ground floor of the center segment of the building, is 40 by 60 feet, without 
a pillar or post, and contains what is said to be the largest fireplace in the State of Oregon 



THE NATIONAL PARKS AT A GLANCE 

Number, 17; Total Area, 9,774 Square Miles. Arranged chronologically in the order of their creation. 



NATIONAL PARK 
and Date 



LOCATION 



AREA 



square 
miles 



Hot Springs Res- 
ervation 



Yellowstone 
1872 



YOSEMITE 
1890 

Sequoia 
1890 

General Grant 
1890 

Mount Rainier 
1899 

Crater Lake 
1902 

Platt 
1904 

Mesa Verde 
1906 

Glacier 
1910 



Rocky Mountain 
1915 

Hawaii 
1916 



Lassen Volcanic 
1916 

Mount McKinley 
1917 



Middle 
Arkansas 



North- 
western 
Wyoming 



Middle 
eastern 
California 

Middle 
eastern 
California 

Middle 
California 

West 

central 

Washington 

Southern 
Oregon 

Southern 
Oklahoma 

Southern 
Colorado 

North- 
western 
Montana 



Northern 
Colorado 

Hawaii 



Northern 
California 

vSouth 

central 

Alaska 



3,348 



252 



324 



249 



77 



1,534 



398 



118 



distinctive characteristics 



46 hot springs possessing curative properties — Many hotels 
and boarding houses in adjacent city of Hot Springs^ 
Bathhouses under public control. 

More geysers than in all rest of world together — Boiling 
springs — Mud volcanoes — Petrified forests — Grand Canyon 
of the Yellowstone, remarkable for gorgeous colorin"- — 
Large lakes and waterfalls — Vast wilderness inhabited by 
deer, elk, bison, moose, antelope, bear, mountain sheep, 
etc.; greatest wild bird and animal preserve in world. 

Valley of world-famed beauty — Lofty clilTs — Romantic vis- 
tas — Waterfalls of extraordinary^ height — 3 groves of big 
trees — Large areas of snowy peaks — Waterwheel falls. 

The Big Tree National Park — 12,000 sequoia trees over 10 
feet in diameter, some 25 to 36 feet in diameter. 

Created to preserve the celebrated General Grant Tree, 35 
feet in diameter — 6 miles from Sequoia National Park. 

Largest accessible single-peak glacier system — 28 glaciers, 
some of large size — 48 square miles of glacier, 50 to 1,000 
feet thick — Remarkable subalpine wild-flower fields. 

Lake of extraordinary blue in crater of extinct volcano, no 
visible inlet, or outlet — Sides 1,000 feet high. 

Sulphur and other springs possessing curative properties — 
Under Government regiUation. 

Most notable and best-preserved prehistoric cliff dwellings 
in United vStates, if not in the world. 

Rugged mountain region of unsurjiasscd alpine character — 
250 glacier-fed lakes of romantic beauty — 60 small gla- 
ciers — Peaks of unusual shape — Precipices thousands of 
feet deep — Fine trout fishing. 

Heart of the Rockies — Snowy Range, peaks 11, 000 to 14,250 
feet altitude — Remarkable records of glacial period. 

Two active volcanoes, Mauna Loa, largest in the world, 
and Kilauea, whose lake of bubbling lava is world famed— 
A third volcano, Haleakala, whose crater, 8 miles wide, 
contains many cones. 

124 Active volcano -Lassen Peak, 10,437 feet in altitude — 
Cinder Cone, 6,907 feet — Hot springs — Mud geysers. 

Highest Mountain in North America— Rises higher above 
surrounding country than any mountain in the world. 



National Parks of less popular interest are: 

Casa Grande Ruin, 1889, Arizona Prehistoric Indian ruin. 

Wind Cave, 1903 , vSouth Dakota Large natural cavern. 

Sullys Hill, 1904, North Dakota Wooded hilly tract on Devils Lake. 



HOW TO REACH THE NATIONAL PARKS 







'•"•f.n,^ 




C^^^Sf-H o.' 



ii 



^"^^V^^^^^«*«4r 










^3a>\fA"""""4v 






T E 







The m:ip shows the location of all of our National Parks and their principal railroad connections. 
The traveler may work out his routes to suit himself. Low round-trip excursion fares to the American 
Rocky Moiuitain re;j;ion and Pacific Coast may be availed of in visitini; the National Parks during 
their respective seasims, thus materially reducing the cost of the trip. Transcontinental throut^h 
trains anil branch lines make the Parks easy of access from all jiarts of the United vStates. I'or schedules 
and excursion fares to and betweeu the National Parks apply to your local railway ticket othce or 
to any excursion agency, or write to the Passenger Departments of the railroads which apjiear on the 
above map, as follows: 

Arizom.\ Eastbkn R.MLROAn Tucson, Ariz. 

Atchison, TopijKA & ,Sant.\ Fi; Raii,w.\y n 19 Railway Exchange, Chioasro. 111. 

Cnic.\i;o & NoKTn VVestijrn Railw.w 226 West Jackson Houlovanl. Chicago. 111. 

Chic.\go, BUKi,iNC.T(JN & QuiNCY Raiuroai) Co 547 West Jackson Honlcvard. Chicago. 111. 

Chic.\oo, MiuwAUKEi; & .St. I'aui, Railway Railway E.xclian«e, Chicago. 111. 

Chkwco. Rock Island & Pacific Railway Co lya Salle Street Station. Cliicajjo. 111. 

Colorado & SouTiii!KN Railway Railway Iv.tchanKe Hiiilding. Denver Colo. 

DijNVijR & Rio C.RANDK Railro.\d Co Eqiiital)le HniUlini;, Denver. Colo. 

Gre.\t NoRTHRRN Railway R.iilroul Hnililin^;. Eourt,h and Jackson Streets, St. Paul, Minn. 

Gulf. Colorado & S.\NT.\ Ee Railway Galveston, Tex. 

Illinois Centr.vl Railro.\d Centril Station. ChieaKo. 111. 

Missouri Pacific Railw.w Railway Exchainje Building. St. Louis. Mo. 

Northern PacificRailw.w Railroad Building, Eiftli and Jackson Streets, St. Paul. Minn. 

San Pedro, I,os AnoelEs & S.\lt Lake Railro.vd .... Pacific Electric Building, Los Angeles, Cal. 

Southern Pacific Co Flood Building, San Francisco, Cal. 

Union Pacific Sy.stem Garland Building, qS East Washington Street, Chicago, 111. 

Wahash Railway Railway Exchange Building, St. Louis, Mo. 

Western Pacific Railway Mills Building, San Francisco, Cal. 

For information aliout sojourning and traveling within the National Parks write to the Department 
of the Interior for the Information circular of the Park tir Parks in which you are interested. 

R KM KM BE R THAT 

THE NATIONAL PARKS BELONG TO YOU 

THKY ARKTIIKGRKAT NATIONAL PLAYGROUNDS OK THE AMKRICAN PKOPLE 
KOR WHOM THEY ARE ADMINISTERED BY THE DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR 

,, WASHINGTON : GOVEKNMBNT PRINTI.Nc; OiriCE : 1017 




THE 

MESA VERDE 

NATIONAL PARK 



DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR 
Franklin K. Lane, Secretary 



NATIONAL PARK SERVICE 




Phototinith hyC M . Can- 

Government Road to the Celekrati d rREnisTOKic Ruins 
Slunvmg the wooils which jiKstily the title Mesa Verde (Green Mesa) 




Pkoloijraph by /•'. C. Jt(!p 



YliSTiiKDAY AND To-IJAY 



CITIES OF THE PAST 




NIv December day in 1888 Richard and Alfred Wetherell, searching 
for lost cattle on the Mesa Verde near their home at Mancos, 
Colorado, pushed through dense growths on the edge of a deep 
canyon and sliouted aloud in astonishment. Across the canyon, 
tucked into a shelf under the overhanging edge of the opposite brink, were the 
walls and towers of what seemed to them a palace. They named it Cliff Palace. 
Forgetting the cattle in their excitement, they searched the edge of the 
mesa in all directi(jns. Near by, under the overhanging edge of another canyon, 
they found a similar group, no less majestic, which they named Spruce Tree 
House because a large spruce grew out of the ruins. 

Thus was discovered the most elaborate and best-preserved prehistoric 
ruins in America, if not in the world. 

A carefid search of the entire Mesa Verde in the years following has resulted 
in many other finds of interest and importance. In 1906 Congress set aside 
the region as a national park, h'ven yet its treasures of antiquity are not all 
known. A remarkaVjle temple to the sun was unearthed in 1915, 



Y-. 



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u. 


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-1 




^ 




w 


. , .'i 


X 


•--> 


r-i 








O 




7- 



o 





Photograph by Dr. Hargrove 

The Exploration ot Newly Discovered Ruins Often Requires .Much Hard and 

Even Perilous Climbing 




Photograph by Mrs. C. R. Miller 

Many Gathered Nightly Around the Camp Fire to Hear Dr. Fevvkes Tell the 

Story of the Ancient People 



THE STORY OF THE MESAS 




HOSK who have traveled through our Southwestern States have 
seen from the car window innumerable mesas or isolated plateaus 
rising abruptly for hundreds of feet from the bare and often arid 
plains. The word mesa is Spanish for table. 
Once the level of these mesa tops was the level of all of this vast South- 
western country, but the rains and floods of centuries have washed away the 
softer earths down to its present level, leaving standing only the rocky spots 
or those so covered with surface rocks that the rains could not reach the softer 
gravel underneath. 

The Mesa Verde, or green mesa (because it is covered with stunted cedar 
and pinyon trees in a land where trees are few) , is perhaps most widely known. 
The Mesa Verde is one of the largest mesas. It is fifteen miles long and 
eight miles wide. At its foot are masses of broken rocks rising from three hun- 
dred to five hundred feet above the bare plains. Above these rise the cliffs. 
The cliff dwellings nestle under its overhanging cliffs near the top. 




IN THE CLIFF DWELLINGS 




IFE must have been difficult in this dry country when the ]\Iesa 
\>rde connuuiiities flourished in the sides of these sandstone cliffs. 
Game was scarce and hunting arduous. The INIancos River yielded 
a few fish. The earth contributed berries or nuts. Water was 
rare and found onlv in sequestered places near the heads of the canyons. 
Nevertheless, the inhabitants cultivated their farms and raised their com, 
which thev ground on flat stones called metates. They baked their bread on 
flat stone griddles. Thev boiled their meat in well-made vessels, some of which 
were artistically decorated. 

Their life was difficult, but confidently did they believe that they were 
dependent upon the gods to make the rain fall and the corn grow. They 
were a religious people who worshipped the sun as the father of all and tlie 
earth as the mother who brought them all their material blessings. They pos- 
sessed no written language and coidd only record their tlioughts by a few sym- 
bols wliich they painted on tlieir earthenware jars or scratched on tlie rocks. 

As their sense of beauty was keen, their art, though primitive, was true; 
rarelv realistic, generally symbolic. Their decoration of cotton fabrics and 
ceramic work might be called beautiful, even when judged by the highly devel- 
oped taste of to-day. They fashioned axes, spear points, and rude tools of 
stone; they wove sandals and made attractive basketry. 

Thev were not content with rude buildings and had long outgrown the 
caves that satisfied less civilized Indians farther nortli and south of them. 

The photographs of Cliff Palace on the following three pages will show not 
onlv the protection aft'orded by the overhanging cliff's but the general scheme 
of community li\'ing. 

The population was composed of a series of units, possibly clans, each of 
which had its own social organization more or less distinct from the others. 
Each had ceremonial rooms, called kivas. Each also had living rooms and 
storerooms. There were twenty-three social units or clans in Cliff' Palace. 

The kivas were the rooms where tlie men spent most of the time devoted 
to ceremonies, councils, and other gatherings. The religious fraternities were 
limited to the men of a clan. 




Cliff Palace Is the Most Celebrated of the Mesa Verde Ruins Because It Is The 

Largest and Most Prominent 

54590°— MY— 17 2 ^ "^ 




Photograph hy Ceo. L. Beam. Dcnicr, Colo. 

Looking Across Cliff Canyon from Cliff Palace; Sun Temple on Extreme Right in 

Distance on Top of Cliff 




Photograph by Arthur Chapman 



The Square Tower of Cliff Palace 







Pholuijrapli by Arthur Cliapinan 



Speaker Chief's House, Cliff Palace 




The Svn Temfle* Looiung Northeast. Shqwinc at Left the Tblcisk 




J^ Tree With ooO Rincs Which was Ci r Down Diri.no txc^ 



AVATION 




Photograph by F. C. Jeep 



Constructive Detail of South \\'ai.i.. Sun Tfmhle 




DISCOVERY OF SUN TEMPLE 

NTIL the summer of 191 5 no structures had been discovered in 
the Mesa Verde except those of the cliff-dwelling type. Then the 
Department of the Interior explored a mound on the top of the 
mesa opposite Cliff' Palace and unearthed Sun Temple. Dr. J. 
Walter Fewkes, who conducted the exploration, believes that tliis was built 
about 1300 A. D. and marks the ffnal stage in Mesa Verde development, 

Sini Temple was a most important discovery. It marked a long advance 
toward civilization. It occupied a commanding position convenient to many 
large inhabited cliff dwellings. Its masonry showed groAvth in the art of con- 
struction. Its walls were embellished by geometrical figures carved in rock. 

A fossil palm leaf, which the Cliff" Dwellers supposed to be a divinelv 
carved image of the sun, is embedded in the temple's walls. 





Ip^Ji^ li.,.^^ --^ 


■^BHMMI^^^^JI 1 MMBI^H^H^^^^M 





Drawing Showing Constructive Detail of Sun Temple 




Stones from Sun Temple Covered With Geometrical and Emblematical Designs 



THE MESA'S LITTLE PEOPLE 




NDIANS of to-day shun the ruins of the Mesa Verde. They be- 
lieve them inhabited by spirits whom they call the Little People. 
It is vain to tell them that the Little People were their own an- 
cestors; they refuse to believe it. 
When the national park telephone line was building in 191 5 the Indians 
were greatly excited. Coming to the vSupervisor's office to trade, they shook 
their heads ominously. 

The poles wouldn't stand up, they declared. Why? Because the Little 
People wouldn't like such an uncanny thing as a telephone. 

But poles were standing, the Supervisor pointed out. All right, the Indians 
replied, but wait. The wires wouldn't talk. Little People wouldn't Hke it. 

The poles were finally all in and the wires strung. What was more, the 
wires actually did talk and are still talking. 

Never mind, say the Indians, with unshaken faith. Never mind. Wait. 
That's all. It will come. The Little People may stand it — for a while. But 
wait. The Supervisor is still waiting. 




Spruce Tree House Hides Under a Huge Overhanging Cliff 

THE PRINCIPAL DWELLINGS 




LIFF PALACE is the most celebrated of the Mesa Verde ruins 
because it is the largest and most prominent. Others are no less 
interesting and important. Spruce Tree House is next in size; 
Balcony House and Peabody House are equally well preserv^ed. 
There are many others; some of which have yet to be thoroughly explored; 
probably some still undiscovered. 

Cliff Palace is three hundred feet long; Spruce Tree House two hundred and 
sixteen. Cliff Palace contained probably two hundred rooms; Spruce Tree 
House a hundred and fourteen. Spruce Tree House originally had three stories. 
Its population was probably three hundred and fifty. 

The Round Tower in Cliff Palace is an object of unusual interest, but the 
ceremonial kivas, or religious rooms, in all the communities are usually round 
and often were entered from below. 

A subterranean entrance to Cliff Palace was recently discovered. 




Entrance to Lower Floors, Spruce Tree House 




Photograph by Arthur Chapman 

Spruce Tree House After Restoration by Dr. Fewkes 




Plu'U'araph by Mrs. C. R Milhi 

Photographing One of the Rooms at Balcony House 




Phiiiuqraphi hv J . L Nusbaum 

Typical Skulls of Prehistoric Man Found in the Mesa Verde 

These skulls show an unusual breadth as compared with Indians of to-day, though of the same ethno- 
logical type. Nordenskiold concludes that the race was fairly robust, with heavy skeletons and 
strong muscular processes. The facial bones are well developed and lov.er jaw heavy 

SUMMER UPON MESA VERDE 




ESA VERDE NATIONAL PARK is in the extreme southwestern 
corner of Colorado and is reached by two routes from Denver. A 
night is usually spent en route, and the ruins are reached by 
wagon, horseback, or automobile from Mancos. 
Apart from the ruins, the country is one of much beauty and interest. The 
highest spot on the mesa is Park Point, 8,515 feet in altitude. The mesa's 
northern edge is a fine bluff two thousand feet above the Montezuma Valley, 
whose irrigation lakes and brilHantly green fields are set off nobly against the 
distant Rico Mountains. To the west are the La Salle and Blue Mountains 
in Utah, with Vte Mountain in the immediate foreground. 

The views are inspiring, the entire country "different." In the spring the en- 
tire region blooms. It used to be a country of wild animals and at times deer are 
still plentiful. There is a fairly comfortable camp near Spruce Tree House, 

An unusual attraction of the summer of 191 5 was the unearthing of the 
great mound which covered Sun Temple. Dr. Fewkes maintained a camp near 
the mound and lectured almost nightly to those who gathered around his camp 
fire. The same informal custom will probably be resumed during succeeding 
summers while the exploration of other suggestive mounds is progressing. 



'i-^ 




The Interior of a Sacred Kiva 




Photograph by Mrs. C. R. Miller 



Stone Chairs Found at the Cliff Palace 



THE NATIONAL PARKS AT A GLANCE 



Number, 17; Total Area, 9,774 Square Miles. Arranged chronologically in the order of their creation. 



national park 

and Date 


location 


AREA 
in 

square 
miles 


DISTINCTIVE characteristics 


Hot Springs Res- 
ervation 
1832 


Middle 
Arkansas 


I '2 


46 hot springs possessing curative propeities— Many hotels 
and boarding houses in adjacent city of Hot Springs^ 
Bathhouses under public control. 


Yellowstone 
1872 


North- 
western 
Wyoming 


3,348 


More geysers than in all rest of world together — Boiling 
springs — Mud volcanoes — Petrified forests — Grand Canyon 
of the Yellowstone, remarkable for gorgeous coloring — • 
Large lakes and waterfalls — Vast wilderness inhabited by 
deer, elk, bison, moose, antelope, bear, mountain sheep, 
etc.; greatest wild bird and animal preserve in world. 


YOSEMITE 
1890 


Middle 
eastern 
California 


1,125 


Valley of world-famed beauty— Lofty cliffs— Romantic vis- 
tas — Waterfalls of extraordinary height — 3 groves of big 
trees— Large areas of snowy peaks— Waterwheel falls. 


Sequoia . 
1890 


Middle 
eastern 
California 


252 


The Big Tree National Park— 12,000 sequoia trees over 10 
feet in diameter, some 25 to 36 feet in diameter. 


General Grant 
1890 


Middle 
California 


4 


Created to preserve the celebrated General Grant Tree, 315 
feet in diameter— 6 miles from Sequoia National Park. 


Mount Rainier 
1899 


West 

central 

Washington 


324 


Largest accessible single-peak glacier system— 28 glaciers, 
some of large size — 48 square miles of glacier, 50 to 1,000 
feet thick — Remarkable subalpine wild-flower fields. 


Crater Lake 
1902 


Southern 
Oregon 


249 


Lake of extraordinary blue in crater of extinct volcano, no 
visible inlet, or outlet — Sides 1,000 feet high. 


Platt 
1904 


Southern 
Oklahoma 


iK 


Sulphur and other springs possessing curative properties— 
Under Government regulation. 


Mesa Verde 
1906 


Southern 
Colorado 


77 


Most notable and best-preserved prehistoric cliff dwellings 
in United States, if not in the world. 


Glacier 
1910 


North- 
western 
Montana 


1,534 


Rugged mountain region of unsurpassed alpine character — 
250 glacier-fed lakes of romantic beauty— 60 small gla- 
ciers — Peaks of unusual shape — Precipices thousands of 
feet deep — Fine trout fishing. 


Rocky Mountain 
1915 


Northern 
Colorado 


398 


Heart of the Rockies — Snowy Range, peaks 11,000 to 14,250 
feet altitude — Remarkable records of glacial period. 


Hawaii 
1916 


Hawaii 


118 


Two active volcanoes, Mauna Loa, largest in the world, 
and Kilauea, whose lake of bubbling lava is world famed— 
A third volcano, Haleakala, whose crater, 8 miles wide, 
contains many cones. 


Lassen Volcanic 
1916 


Northern 
California 


124 


Active volcano— Lassen Peak, 10,437 f^^t in altitude — 
Cinder Cone, 6,907 feet — Hot springs — Mud geysers. 


Mount McKinley 
1917 


South 

central 

Alaska 


2, 200 


Highest Mountain in North America — Rises higher above 
surrounding country than any mountain in the world. 



National Parks of less popular interest are: 

Casa Grande Ruin, 18S9, Arizona Prehistoric Indian ruin. 

Wind Cave, 1903, South Dakota Large natural cavern. 

SuUys Hill, 1904, North Dakota Wooded hilly tract on Devils Lake. 



HOW TO REACH THE NATIONAL PARKS 



Stilinaham 




The map shows the location of all of our National Parks and their principal railroad connections. 
The traveler may work out his routes to suit himself. Low round-trip excursion fares to the American 
Rocky Mountain region and Pacific Coast may be availed of in visiting the National Parks during 
their respective seasons, thus materially reducing the cost of the trip. Transcontinental through 
trains and branch lines make the Parks easy of access from all parts of the United States. For schedules 
and excursion fares to and between the National Parks apply to your local railway ticket office or 
to any excursion agency, or write to the Passenger Departments of the railroads which appear on the 
above map, as follows: 

Arizom.\ E.'Vstern R.\ilro.\d Tucson. Ariz. 

Atchison, TopRK.\ & S.\NT.\ Fb R.MLW.-VY mg Railway Exchange, Chicago. 111. 

Cmc.\GO & North Westurn R.\ii,w.\y 226 West Jackson Boulevard. Chicago. 111. 

Chicago, BURUNGTON & QuixcY R.MLRO.VD Co 547 West Jackson Boulevarti. Chicago. 111. 

Chic.\go, MiLvv.\UKEE & St. P.vul, R.-vilw.w Railway E.xchange. Chicago. 111. 

Chicago, Rock Island & P.vcific R.mlw.^y Co La Salle StrcLH .Station. Chicago, 111. 

CoLOR.VDO & .Southern RAiLW.'vy Railway Exchange Building. Denver. Colo. 

Denver & Rio Grande Railroad Co Equitable Building, Denver. Colo. 

Great Northern Railway Railroad Building, Fourth and Jackson Streets, St. Paul, JMinn. 

Gulf, Colorado & Santa Fe Railway Galveston, Tex. 

Illi.nois Central Railroad Central Station. Chicago. 111. 

Missouri Pacific Railway Railway Exchange Building. St. Louis. Mo. 

Northern PacificRailway Railroad Building, Fifth and Jackson Streets, St. Paul. Minn. 

S.VN Pedro. Los Angeles & Salt L.'VKE Railroad .... Pacific Electric Building. Los Angeles. Cal. 

Southern P.\cific Co Flood Building. San Francisco, Cal. 

Union Pacific System Garland Building, 58 East Washington Street, Chicago, 111. 

Wab.\sh Railw.\y Railway Exchange Building. St. Louis, AIo. 

Western Pacific Railway Mills Building. San Francisco . Cal. 

For information aVjout sojourning and traveling within the National Parks write to the Department 
of the Interior for the Information circular of the Park or Parks in which you are interested. 

REMEMBER THAT 

THE NATIONAL PARKS BELONG TO YOU 

THEY ARE THE GREAT NATIONAL PLAYGROUNDS OF THE AMERICAN PEOPLE 
FOR WHOM THE^- ARE ADMINISTERED BY THE DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR 

34 WASHINGTO.N : GOVEK.VME.NT PKINTIXG OFFICE : 1917 




GLACIER 


N A T I O N A T , 
PARK 


DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR 

Franklin K. Lane, Secretary 


NATIONAL PARK SERVICE 




Tin: Si I'KKMic Cu)KY or Tuii: Glacikr National Park Is Its Lakes 
A y,limpsc of beautiful St. Mary Lake and Going-to-the-Sun Mountain 




Photograph by U. S. Reclamation Service 

St. Mary Chalet, Typical of Glacier Architecture 



AN ALPINE PARADISE 




OTWITHSTANDING the sixty glaciers from which it derives its 
name, the Glacier National Park is cliiefly remarkable for its pic- 
turesquely modeled peaks, the unique quahty of its mountain 
masses, its gigantic precipices, and the romantic loveliness of its 
two hundred and fifty lakes. 

Though most of our national parks possess similar general features in addi- 
tion to those which sharply differentiate each from every other, the Glacier 
National Park shows them in special abundance and unusually happy combina- 
tion. In fact, it is the quite extraordinary, almost sensational, massing of these 
scenic elements which gives it its marked individuality. 

The broken and diversified character of this scenery, involving rugged 
mountain tops bounded by vertical walls sometimes more than four thousand 
feet high, glaciers perched upon lofty rocky shelves, unexpected waterfalls of 
peculiar charm, rivers of milky glacier water, lakes unexcelled for sheer beauty 
by the most celebrated of sunny Italy and snow-topped Switzerland, and grandly 
timbered slopes sweeping into valley bottoms, offer a continuous yet ever 
changing series of inspiring vistas not to be found in such luxuriance and per- 
fection elsewhere. 

And this rare scenic combination is not alone of one valley of the park, but 
is characteristic of them all ; so that it is difficult to single out any part of these 











^^^^^ 




• - 1 








1 T^ . 


^ 







I-'/ioluijrapIt by Fred 11. Kiscr, Portlmut, Orcnoii 

Climbing the Upper Reaches ok the Blackfeet Glacier 

liflccii hundred square miles that is more Ijeautiful, more remarkable, or more 
strikingly diversified than any other. 

The Glacier National Park lies in northwestern ]\Iontana, abuttin.c^ the 
Canadian boundary. It incloses the Continental Divide of the Rocky Mountauis 
at that point; in fact, from one spot, known as the Triple Divide, waters flow 
into the Pacific Ocean, Hudson Bay, and the Gulf of Mexico. 

It is interesting that Glacier's peculiarly rugged topography is practically 
limited to the park's l)Oundaries. To the north, in Canada, the uKMuitains 
subside into low, rounded ridges. To the south and west, though still fine, 
they lose the quality of majesty. Easterly lie the Plains. 

The transcontinental railway traveler skirts the park without hint of the 
su])reme beauty so near at hand. But let him stop at Glacier Park station or 
at Belton and, after swift rides in autostages, see something of the beauties of 
Lake St. Mary, Lake McDermott, or Lake McDonald, and he will instantly 
understand the attractive force which draws thousands across the continent, 
and will some day draw tliousands across the seas, to stand spellbound before 
these awe-inspiring examples of nature's noblest handiwork. 




Photograph by Fred H. Kiser. Portland. Oregon 

You Seem Menaced by Glaciers and Waterfalls upon Every Side 

Avalanche Lake, fed from the Sperry Glacier above, lies in a cirque whose precipices rise thousands 

of feet 




Photoiiraph by Naiiontd Park Service 

SWIFTCURRKNT PaSS ON A SnOVVY SePTEMIU'R AfTKRNOON 




Photograph by George V. Dauchy 

Tnt GuNSiGHT Trail, just East ok the Pass Showinc Gunsight Lake; Going-to-the-Sln 

Mountain in Left Distance 



MAKING A NATIONAL PARK 



low nature, just how many millions of years ago no man can csti- 

Hmate, made the Glacier National Park is a stirrini]; story. 
Once this whole region was covered with water, probably the 

J sea. The earthy sediments deposited by this water hardened into 

rocky strata. If you were in the park to-day you would see broad horizontal 
streaks of variously colored rock in the mountain masses thousands of feet 
above you. They are discernible in the photographs in this book. They are 
the very strata that the waters de])osited in their depths in those far-away ages. 
How they got from the seas' bottoms to the mountains' tops is the story. 

According to one fa- 
mous theory of creation, the 
earth has been contracting 
through unnumbered cycles 
of time. Just as the squeezed 
orange bulges in places, so 
this region was forced vip- 
ward. Then it cracked and 
the western edge was thrust 
far over the eastern edge. 
The edge thus thrust 
over was many thousands 
of feet thick and disclosed 
all the geological strata 
which had been deposited 
at that time. In the many 
centuries of centuries since 
that time all these strata 
except the next to the oldest 
in the earth's history have 
been washed away, disclos- 
ing here rocks which geolo- 
gists think are at least eighty 
millions of years old. 

Under this incalculal)le 
pressure from its sides and 
below, the bottom of the 
sea gradually rose and be- 
came dry land. The pressure 
continued, and the earth's 
crust, like the skin of the 
S(iueezed orange, bulged in 
long irregular lines. In time 
these became mountains. 

Phiilopraph by Flits I'rnilicc Loir 

Iceberg Lake Where Floes Drift in Auctsr 





Photograph by L. I). lAivlshy 

Onh of thk Wildi-st Spots on Kartii Is Ptarmigan Lake 

Then, when the rocky crust could no longer stand the strain, it cracked. 

Gradually the western edge of this great crack was forced upward and over 
the eastern edge. This relieved the internal pressure and the overlapping 
edge settled into its present position. Geologists call this process faulting. 

The edge thus thrust over was many thousand feet thick. It disclosed all 
the geological strata of the earth which had been deposited up to that time. 
In the many centuries of centuries since, all these strata have been washed 
away, except the very oldest, those of the Algonkian period, which geologists 
think are at least eighty millions of years old. It is this ancient rock which 
gives the Glacier National Park its individuality. 

Then this remaining edge of rock crumbled into peaks and precipices. 

Upon these the rains of uncounted centuries of centuries since have fallen, 
and the ice and the frost and the rushing waters have carved them into the area 
of distinguished beauty which is to-day the American Switzerland. 

To picture this region, imagine a chain of very lofty mountains twisting 
about like a worm, spotted with snow fields, and bearing glistening glaciers. 
Imagine them flanked everywhere by lesser peaks and tumbled mountain 
masses of smaller size in whose hollows lie the most beautiful lakes you have 
ever dreamed of. 

54.590'— G— 17 2 o Q 




•t; ^ 




/V.,./..,-r,if/, hy /■-;,./■ //. K:.:r. J\;l!,,,:.l . (>u,:. ,: 

Ir Is THE Romantic. Almost SeiNsational Massing of Extraordinary Scenic 
Beautiful St. Mary Lake with Going-to-the-Sun Camp in the forei; 




Iments Which Gives the Glacier National Park Its Marked Individuality 
Jl. Citadel Mountain in left center, Fusillade Mountain to the right 



ITS LAKES AND VALLEYS 





Pholoaraph by Fred II. Kiscr, Porltand. Oriiio 

J 40 



HE supreme glory of the 
Glacier National Park is its 
lakes. The world has none 
to surpass, perhaps few to 
equal them. Some are valley gems 
grown to the water's edge with forests. 
Some are cradled among precipices. 
Some float ice fields in midsummer. 

From the Continental Divide seven 
]:)rincipal valleys drop precipitously 
upon the east, twelve sweep down the 
longer western slopes. Each valley 
holds between its feet its greater lake 
to which are tributary many smaller 
lakes of astonishing wildness. 

On the east side St. Mary Lake is 
destined to world-wide celebrity, but so 
also is Lake McDonald on the west side. 
These are the largest in the park. 

But some, perhaps many, of the 
smaller lakes are candidates for beauty's 
highest honors. Of these. Lake McDer- 
mott with its minaretted peaks stands 
first — perhaps because best known, for 
here is one of the finest hotels in any 
national park and a luxurious camp. 

Upper Two Medicine Lake is an- 
other east-side candidate widely known 
because of its accessibility, while far to 
the north the Belly River A'alley, diffi- 
cult to reach and seldom seen, holds 
lakes, fed by eighteen glaciers, which 
will compare with Switzerland's noblest. 

The west-side valleys north of Mc- 
Donald constitute a little-known wil- 
derness of the earth's choicest scenery, 
destined to future appreciation. 

The Continental Divide is usually 
crossed bv the famous Gunsight Pass 
Trail, which skirts giant precipices and 
develops sensational vistas in its ser- 
pentine course. 




Photograt'h by I '. S. Rcclamalinu. .S'rr;a- 

Birth of a Cloud on the Side of Mount Rockwell, Two Medicine Lake 




Photograph by U, S, Reclamation Service 

Early Morning Cloud Effects at Two Medicine Lake 
Romantic Rising-WolF Mountain is seen in middle distance 




Photoorat>h by U. S. Reclamafimi Sen<ice 

Interior of Many Glaciers Hotel, Lake McDermott 




Photograph by L. D. Lhidsley 



Thk End oi- inh Day 



COMFORT AMONG GLACIERS 




SMALL but imposing aggregate of the scenery of the Glacier 
National Park is available to the comfort-loving traveler. There 
are two entrances, each with a railroad station. The visitor 
choosing the east entrance, at Glacier Park, will find autostages 
to Two Medicine Lake, St. Mary Lake, and Lake McDermott. 

At the railway station and at Lake McDermott are elaborate modern hotels 
ivith every convenience. At Two Medicine Lake, at St. Mary and Upper 
St. Mary Lakes, at Cut Bank Creek, at Lake McDermott, at a superb point 
3elow the Sperry Glacier, and at Granite Park are chalets or camps, or both, 
kvhere excellent accommodations may be had at modest charges. 

The visitor choosing the west entrance, at Belton, will find camps and 
:halets there, and an autostage to beautiful Lake McDonald, where there is 
1 hotel of comfort and individuality. 

There is boat service on Upper St. Mary Lake and Lake McDonald. 
But if the enterprising traveler desires to know this wilderness wonderland 
in all its moods and phases, he must equip himself for the rough trail and the 
ivayside camp. Thus he may devote weeks, months, summers to the bene- 
fiting of his health and the uplifting of his soul. 




PhotograMi by L. D. Limlsky 

The Mountainkkrs on Tour— Wash Day at Nyack Lake 




J'h^tlOyt^pii by L .S. Kii.ia,inuh>n .Service 



To THE Victor Bi-i.ong the Spoils 
Mary Roberts Rinehart lunching after a morning's trouting on Flathead River 




ft 




I'hotiujnipli I'yCconjc V. Daucliy 

Beautiful Lake McDonald, Looking Northeast 
Mount Cannon, cloud shrouded, is in the middle distance; Mount Brown on the right 




Photograph by U. S. Uiclain.iluni Service 

The Comfouiakle Hotel Near the Mead of Lake McDonald 




Photograph by U. S. Redamatimi Service 



Clearing After the Storm 



PURCHASED FROM INDIANS 



I INCH this region was the favorite hunting ground of the Blackfeet 

O Indians, whose reservation adjoins it on the east. It was then 
practically unknown to white men. In 1890 copper was found 
^1 and there was a rush of prospectors. To open it for mining pur- 
poses Congress bought the region from the Indians in 1896, but not enough 
copper was found to pay for the mining. After the miners left, few persons 
visited it but big-game hunters until 1910, when it was made a national park. ,| 







i?A^!^'^ 



Photograph by National Park Service 

Mount Oberlin from Granite Park, Showing the Noble South Wall on a Cloudy Day 



CREATURES OF THE WILI 



G 


IvACIIvR, once the 
favorite hunting 
g r o 11 n (1 of the 
Blackfeet and now 










for fifteen 


L years strictly pre- 


kJl 


served, has a large and grow- 






^ 


C:^ 


ing population of creatures of 






^ 


'' " 


the wild. Its rocks and preci- 




i 


' ■ ;■& 


W' 


pices lit it especially to be the 


'"^., 




home of the Rocky Mountain 




i 






sheep and the mountain goat. 






i 




i. o 

Both of these large and 






I 




hardy climbers are found in 






1 




Glacier in great numl^ers. 






f 


, j__; ;y ; 


They constitute a familiar 




i 


r 


M 


sight in many of the places 




A 




most frequented by tourists. 




4 






Trout lisliing is particu- 


'^- '-H* ii 








larl\- line. The trout are of 


M 


Wt 


- 




half a dozen western vari- 


i^^ 


.Jm 


■.S5» -,y 




eties, of which perhaps the 




■■mM 


, ^ 


r^ 


cutthroat is the most com- 


■r^ 


i^ji^H 


i'-.. 


f 


mon. In Lake St. Mary the 


W 


'' JI^B 


i^ 


mf' 


Mackinaw is caught up to 


W' 


«^^^H 




E '"^ 


twenty pounds in weight. 




V- .^^^^1 







So widely are they distrib- 


M«^*^^^' 


m/M^'j^^^^^ 




i 


uted that it is difficult to 




'Jr 




1 


name lakes of special hshiiig 




f 




1 


importance. 








1 


■ ■ 


. . . "i'^it-'fVif.' '■ 


' 4 


' 




^m ' 















Photograph by Fred H. Riser, Portland, Oregon 

Summit of Appistoki Mountain 



^HE NATIONAL PARKS AT A GLANCE 

umber, 17; Total Area, 9,774 Square Miles. Arranged chronologically in the order of their creation. 



NATIONAL PARK 
and Date 



loT Springs Res- 
ervation 
1832 

Yellowstone 
1S72 



YOSEMITE 
1890 

Sequoia 
1890 

General Grant 
1890 

Mount Rainier 
1899 

Crater Lake 
1902 

Platt 
1904 

Mesa Verde 
1906 

Glacier 
1910 



Rocky Mountain 
1915 

Hawaii 
1916 



Lassen Volcanic 
1916 

Mount McKinlry 
1917 



location 



Middle 
Arkansas 



North- 
western 
Wyoming 



Middle 
eastern 
California 

Middle 
eastern 
California 

Middle 
California 

West 

central 

Washington 

Southern 
Oregon 

Southern 
Oklahoma 

Southern 
Colorado 

North- 
western 
Montana 



Northern 
Colorado 

Hawaii 



Northern 
California 

South 

central 

Alaska 



AREA 



square 
miles 



3.348 



252 



324 



249 



77 



1.534 



398 



118 



124 



DISTINCTIVE CHARACTERISTICS 



46 hot springs possessing curative properties — Many hotels 
and boarding houses in adjacent city of Hot Springs — 
Bathhouses under puljlic control. 

More geysers than in all rest of world together — Boiling 
springs — Mud volcanoes — Petrified forests — Grand Canyon 
of the Yellowstone, remarkable for gorgeous coloring — 
Large lakes and waterfalls — Vast wilderness inhalnted Ijy 
deer, elk, bison, moose, antelope, bear, mountain sheep, 
etc.; greatest wild bird and animal preserve in world. 

Valley of world-famed beauty — Lofty cliffs — Romantic vis- 
tas — Waterfalls of extraordinary height — 3 groves of big 
trees— Large areas of snowy peaks— Waterwheel falls: 

The Big Tree National Park — 12,000 sequoia trees over 10 
feet in diameter, some 25 to 36 feet in diameter. 

Created to preserve the celebrated General Grant Tree, 35 
feet in diameter — 6 miles from Sequoia National Park. 

Largest accessible single-peak glacier system — 28 glaciers, 
some of large size — 48 stjuarc miles of glacier, 50 to 1,000 
feet thick — Remarkable subalpine wild-flower fields. 

Lake of extraordinary blue in crater of extinct volcano, no 
visible inlet, or outlet — vSidcs 1,000 feet high. 

Suljihur and other sj^rings possessing curative properties — 
Under Government regulation. 

Most notable and best-preserved prehistoric cliff dwellings 
in United States, if not in the world. 

Rugged mountain region of unsurptissed alpine character — 
250 glacier-fed lakes of romantic beauty — 60 small gla- 
ciers — Peaks of unusual shape — Precipices thousands of 
feet deep — Fine trout fishing. 

Heart of the Rockies — Snowy Range, peaks 11, 000 to 14,250 
feet altitude— Remarkable records of glacial period. 

Two active volcanoes, Mauna Loa, largest in the world, 
and Ivilauea, whose lake of bubbling lava is world famed — ■ 
A third volcano, Haleakala, whose crater, 8 miles wide, 
contains many cones. 

Active volcano— Lassen Peak, 10,437 feet in altitude- 
Cinder Cone, 6,907 feet — Hot springs — Mud geysers. 

Highest Mountain in North America— Rises higher above 
surrounding country than any mountain in the world. 



National Parks of less popular interest are: 

asa Grande Ruin, 1889, Arizona Prehistoric Indian ruin. 

/ind Cave, 1903, South Dakota Large natural cavern. 

ullys Hill, 1904, North Dakota Wooded hilly tract on Devils Lake. 



HOW TO REACH THE NATIONAL PARKS 



■.'^.•:- 






Nad 

-J TT i*;^^ — =S-~^vl. Ukd 







^•p.jc.tv S DAK 






^ 






^r- ,-^=5=- 









Eo-w-^^ fj ^'^7--^^:^, f'"^ t^^^k^"^ 








The map shows the location of all of our National Parks and their ])rincipal railroad connections. 
The traveler may work out his routes to suit himself. Low round-trip excursion fares to the American 
Rocky Motmtain region and Pacific Coiist may be availed of in visiting the National Parks during 
their respective se;isons, thus materially reducing the cost of the trip. Transcontinental through 
trains and branch lines make the Parks easy of access from all parts of the United vStates. l'"or schedules 
and excursion fares to and between the National Parks apply to your local railway ticket otlice or 
to any excursion agency, or write to the Piissenger Departments of the railroads which appear on the 
above map, as follows: 

Arizi)M.\ E.\sti<;km R.\ii,ko.\» Tucson, Ariz. 

Atchison. Topi5K.\ & S.vNT.v Fi; R.MLWAY ntg Railway ExchanRe, ChicaRO. 111. 

Chioaco & North WbstivKN R.\iLW.\Y ij6 West J icksoii Boulevard. Chicago. 111. 

Chkacii. HuKLiNiiTON & QuiNCY Railroad Co 547 West Jack-ioii Boulevard, CliicaRo. 111. 

Chk\c;<). MiuvvAUKBij & .St. Paul Railway Railway ExchanKC. Chicago. 111. 

CiiKAi-.o, Rock Island & Pacific Railway Co La Salle vSireci Station, Chicaso. 111. 

Colorado &SouTiiivRx Railway Railw.i\' Exchmgo Building, Denver. Colo. 

DiiNVKR & Rio C.rande Railroad Co Etiuilahle Building, Denver, Colo. 

Grkat Northern Railway Railroad Building, Fourth an 1 Jackson Streets, .St. Paul, Minn. 

Gulf, Colorado & Santa Fe Railway Galveston. Tex. 

Illinois CijNTRAL Railroad Ccntril .Station. Chicago, 111. 

Mis.soURi Pacific Railway Railway Exchange Building, St. Louis. Mo. 

Nokthurn PacificRailway Railroad Building, Fifth and Jackson .Streets. St. Paul, Minn. 

San Pkdro. Los AngislEs & Salt Laku Railroad . . . . Pacific Electric Building, Los Augcles, Cal. 

SoutiiivRN Pacific Co Flood Building. .San Francisco, Cal. 

Union P.vcific System Garluul Building, s'^ East Washington Street, Chicago 111. 

W AiiASH Railway Railway Exchani;c Building, .St. Louis. Mo. 

\\'EsTicu.N I'.vciFic Railway Mills Building, San Francisco, Cal. 

For information abimt sojourning and traveling within the National Parks write to the Department 
of the Interior for the Information circular of the Park or Parks in which you arc interested. 



RKMKIMBER THAT 



THE NATIONAL PARKS BELONG TO YOU 

THEY ARE THE GREAT NATIONAL PLAYGROUNDS OF THE AMERICAN PEOPLE 
FOR WHOM THEY ARE ADMINISTERED BY THE DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR 

,, WASUINGTO.N : UOVEKNMK.NT I'KI.VTI .NC OFFICE : 1917 







THE 

ROCKY 
MOUNTAIN 

NATIONAL 
PARK 



Phoioarat>h by Wi'.wall Brother':, Denver 



DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR 

Franklin K. Lane, Secretary 



NATIONAL PARK SERVICE 




"J <u 




Photograph by U. S. Reclamatinn Service 

Fall River Entrance to the Rocky Mountain National Park 



"TOP OF THE WORLD" 




OR many years the Mecca of eastern mountain lovers has been the 
Rockies. For many years the name has summed European ideas 
of American mountain grandeur. Yet it was not until 191 5 that 
a particular section of the enormous area of magnificent and diver- 
sified scenic range thus designated was chosen as the representative of the 
noblest qualities of the whole. This is the Rocky Mountain National Park. 

And it is splendidly representative. In nobility, in calm dignity, in the 
sheer glory of stalwart beauty, there is no mountain group to excel the company 
of snow-capped veterans of all the ages which stands at everlasting parade 
behind its grim, helmeted captain. Longs Peak. 

There is probably no other scenic neighborhood of the first order which 
combines mountain outlines so bold with a quality of beauty so intimate and 
refined. Just to live in the valleys in the eloquent and ever-changing presence 
of these carved and tinted peaks is itself satisfaction. But to climb into their 
embrace, to know them in the intimacy of their bare summits and their flowered, 
glaciated gorges, is to turn a new and unforgettable page in experience. 

The park straddles the Continental Divide at a point of supreme magnificence. 
Its eastern gateway is beautiful Estes Park, a valley village of many hotels from 
which access up to the most noble heights and into the most picturesque recesses 
of the Rockies is easy and comfortable. Its western entrance is Grand Lake. 



THE KING AND HIS KINGDOM 




Illv Snowy Range lies, roughly 

speaking, north and south. hVom 

valleys 8,000 feet high, the jjeaks 

rise to 12,000 and 14,000 feet. 

Longs Peak measures 14,255 feet. 

The gentler slopes are on the west, a region 
of loveliness, heavily wooded, diversified by 
gloriously modeled mountain masses, and 
watered by many streams and rock-bovmd 
lakes. The western entrance, Grand Lake, is 
a thriving center of hotel and cottage life. 

On the east side the descent horn the Con- 
tinental Divide is steep in the extreme. Preci- 
pices two or three thousand feet ]jlunging into 
gorges carpeted with snow patches and wild 
flowers are common. Seen from the east-side 
villages, this range rises in daring rchcf, craggy 
in outline, snow-spattered, awe-ins]jiring. 

Midway of the range and standing boldly 
forward from its western side, Longs Peak 
rears his lofty, square-crowned head. A \cri 
table King of Mountains — stalwart, majestic. 

Amazingly diversified is this favored region. 

The valleys are checkered with broad, 
flowery opens and luxuriant groves of white- 
stemmed aspens and dark-lea\ed jjines. Sing 
ing rivers and shining lakes abound. I'rost 
sculptured granite cliffs assume pictures(|ue 
shapes. Always some group of ])eaks has 
caught and held the wandering clouds. 

Very different are the mountain xistas. 
From the heights stretches on every hand a 
tumbled sea of peaks. Dark gorges open 
underfoot. Massive granite walls torn from 
their fastenings in some unimaginable u]jhea\ al 
in ages before man impose their gray faces. 
Far in the distance lie patches of molten 
silver which are lakes, and threads of silver 
which are rivers, and mists which conceal far-off 
valleys. On sunny days lies to the east a 
dim sea which is the Great Plain. 




Photograph hv I 
MOUM 



Ll.xklnck King 



Pliotoijrafh by Eiios Mills 



RECORDS OF THE GLACIERS 




Phcloorath hv I'. S. K,ihn>!dfuu: 

.Moonlight on CJrand Lake 



FlvATURI-: of this 

Arci^ion is the read 
ability of its records 
I of q;lacial action 
(Uirino; the ages when America 
was making. In few other 
spots do these evidences, in ah- 
their \ariety, make themselves 
so prominent to the casual eye. 
There is scarcely any part 
of the eastern sitle where some 
enormous moraine does not 
force itself upon passing atten- 
tion. One of the valley A-illages. 
Moraine I'ark, is so named from 
a moraine built out for miles 
across the valley's floor by an- 
cient parallel glaciers. 

Scarcely less prominent is 
the long curxiug hill called the 
Mills INIoraine, after l{nos Mills, 
the naturalist, who is known 
in Colorado as "the father of 
the Rocky Mouulaiu Xational 
Park." 

In short, this park is itself a 
primer of glacial geology whose 
simple, self-evndent lessons im- 
mediately disclose the ke^' to one 
of nature'scliiefest scenic secrets. 




J-'lwluijniph by Wdlis J\ U 



I.ONC.S I'l-AK IKIJM BOUI.DKR FlKl-D 

At the extreme ri<;ht is seen the "Keyhole" through which the simiinit is reached 




/'holoaraph by Willis T. Lcc 



Full Course of the Mills Moraine 

The mighty glacier that heaped it a thousand feet high was born at the foot of Longs Peak 
precipice. The moraine is four miles long 




MinwAY ov Tin: Rani.k, I.on(;s I'hak Rkars His Statklv, Souare-Crownf 

This is the very heart of the Rockies; few phut 




d; a Vf-ritaiu-k King ok Mountains C'ai.mi.y Ovkrlooking All llib Ki.alm 
s so fully express the spirit of the Snowy Range 




Pholoc!raf>h by John King Shrrma n 

The Chiseled Western Wall of Loch Vale 

PRECIPICE -WALLED GORGES 




PIto/oiirath I'V John KingShcrnHin 

Chasm Lake and Longs Peak 



DISTINGUISHED fea- 

Al tiire of the park is its 
profusion of cliff-cradled, 

glacier-watered valleys 

unexcelled for wildness and the g\or\ 
of their flowers. Here grandeur and 
romantic beauty compete. 

These valleys lie in two groups, 
one north, the other south of Longs 
Peak, in the angles of the main range ; 
the northern group called the \\{\d 
Garden, the southern group called 
the W^ild Basin. 

There are few spots, for instance, 
so impressi\-ely beautiful as Loch 
A'ale, ^\'ith its three shelved lakes 
l\ing two thousand feet sheer be- 
low Taylors Peak. Adjoining is 
Glacier Gorge at the foot of the 
precipitous north slope of Longs 
Peak, holding in rocky embrace its 
own group of three lakelets. 

The \\{\(\ Basin, with its wealth 
of lake and precipice, still remains 
unexploited and known to few. 




Few Mountain Gorges Are So Impressively Beautiful as Loch Vale 




PhoU\jral>h hy Kiios .\fi:is 



"Thk Knd ok TH1-: Tkaii. " 




PhoiottraPh hy Gtorgc C, Barnard. P, 

An luEAL Coi'NTRY FOR W'lNTl R SrORTS 

l< RM 




l^huionraph by Georpe H . Hariey 

Grand Lake i-kom -liit Lo:.ii;.l:.j.--.l Uimul 




Pfi'.y, ir .;.': >■■_, I. . S. Reclamation Service 

Cache la Poldre Valley at PVxrr of Spfclmen Mountain 




Photograph by U. S. R. , ; . c.lion Service 

Odessa Lake Is Almost Fncirci.fd r.v Snow-Spattfrfd Simmits 




Pholngraph by U. S. Rt-clamalion Scrrice 



Spkucf-Gikdled Fern Lake, Showing LrnLE Mattekhokn in Middle Distance^ 



METROPOLIS o/BEAVERLAND 





Copyright by Wisuall Protlur - ihir.r 

An Aspen Thicket Tr.ml Is a Path of 
Delight 



HK \'isitor mil not forget 
the aspens in the Rocky 
Mountain National 
Park. Their white trunks 
and branches and their luxuriant 
bright green foliage are never out 
of sight. A trail tlirough an aspen 
thicket is a path of delight. 

Because of the unusual aspen 
growths, the region is the favored 
home of beavers, who make the 
tender bark their principal food. 
Beaver dams block countless streams 
and beaver houses emerge from the 
still ponds above. In some retired 
spots the engineering feats of gener- 
ations of beaver families may be 
traced in all their considerable range. 

Nowhere is the picturesqueness 
of timl)er line more quickly and more 
easil)- seen. A horse after early 
breakfast, a steep mountain trail, an 
hour of unique enjovment, and one 
may be back for late luncheon. 

Eleven thousand feet up, the 
winter struggles between trees and 
icy gales are grotesquely exhibited. 

The first sight of luxuriant En- 
gelmann spruces creeping closely 
upon the ground instead of rising a 
hundred and fifty feet straight and 
true as masts is not soon forgotten. 
Manv stems strong enough to partly 
defv the winters' gales grow bent in 
half circles. Others, starting straight 
in shelter of some large rock, bend 
at right angles where they emerge 
above it. j\Iany succeed in hfting 
their trunks but not in growing 
branches except in their lee, thus sug- 
gesting great evergreen dust brushes. 







PhotoaraphhyEnos Mills t-> r> , /^ V.,,n,,i i. cq '^rRKAMS 

Beaver Dams Block LouNiLEbb MREAMb 




Pliottnjral'hhv I'.ii.-. Mdh 



Wind-Twisted Trees at Timber Line 




PhotOi;raph by U. S. Rcddtitation Sen ice 



The Stanliv IIotil and Manor 



EASY TO REACH AND TO SEE 




HI{ accessibility of the Rocky Moiiiitaiii Xalioiial Park is apparent 
by a glance at any map. Denver is less than thirt\- hours from 
v'^t. I.ouis and Chicaj^o, two days only from Xcw York. Four hom's 
from ])enver will put you in Kstes Park. 
Once there, comfcnlable in one of its many hotels of varying range of tariff, 
and the snnnnils dud the gorges of this numntain-toi) paradise resolve them- 
selves into a choice between foot and horseback. 

There are also a few most C(»mfortablc houses and several somewhat primi- 
tive camps within the jnuk's boundaries at the verv foot of its noblest scenerv. 




Longs Pfak Inn; Altitude 9,000 Feet 

Longs Peak (14,255 feet) in the center of the triple mountain group, flanked by Mount AFeekcr on 
the left and Mount Lady Washington on the right; across their front is the Mills Moraine 



THE NATIONAL PARKS AT A GLANCE 

Number, 17 ; Total Area, 9,774 Square Miles. Arranged chronologically in the order of their creation. 



ARBA 

NATIONAL PARK , LOCATION J^^^^ 

and Date square 

I miles 



Hot Springs Res- 
ervation 
1832 

Yellowstone 
1872 



Middle 
Arkansas 



North- 
western 
Wyoming 



YOSEMITE 

1890 


Middle 
eastern 
California 


Sequoia 
1890 


Middle 
eastern 
California 


General Grant 

1890 


Middle 
California 


Mount Rainier 
1899 


West 

central 

Washington 


Crater Lake 
1902 


Southern 
Oregon 


Platt 
1904 


Srmthern 
Oklahoma 


Mesa Verde 
1906 


Southern 
Colorado 


Glacier 
1910 


North- 
western 
Montana 



Rocky Mountain N'orthern 
jgi- Colorado 



Hawaii 
1916 



Lassen Volcanic 
1916 

Mount McKinley 
1917 



Hawaii 



Northern 
California 



South 

central 

Alaska 



3,348 



1,125 



252 



324 



249 



77 



1,534 



39& 



distinctive characteristics 



46 hot springs possessing curative properties— Many hotels 
and boarding houses in adjacent city of Hot Springs — 
P.athhouses under public control. 

More geysers than in all rest of worUI together — Boiling 
springs — Mud volcanoes — Petrified forests— Cjrand Canyon 
of the Yellowstfjnc, remarkable for gorgeous coloring — 
Large lakes and waterfalls — Vast wilderness inhabited by 
deer, elk, Vnson, moose, antelope, bear, mountain sheep, 
etc.; greatest wild bird and animal preserve in world. 

Valley of world-famed beauty — Lofty cliffs — Romantic vis- 
tas — Waterfalls of extrar^rdinary- height — 3 groves of big 
trees — Large areas of snowy peaks — Waterwheel falls. 

The Big Tree National Park — 12,000 sequoia trees over 10 
feet in diameter, some 25 to 36 feet in diameter. 

Created to preserve the celebrated General Grant Tree, 35 
feet in diameter — 6 miles from Sequoia National Park. 

Largest accessible single-peak glacier system — 28 glaciers, 
some of large size — 48 square miles of glacier, 50 to 1,000 
feet thick — Remarkable subalpine wild-flower fields. 

Lake of extraordinary blue in crater of extinct volcano, no 
visible inlet, or outlet — Sides 1,000 feet high. 

vSulphiir and other springs possessing curative properties — 
Under Government regulation. 

Most notable and best-preserved prehistoric clilT dwellings 
in United States, if not in the world. 

Rugged mountain region of unsurpassed alpine character — 
250 glacier-fed lakes of romantic beauty — 60 small gla- 
ciers — Peaks of unusual shape — Precipices thousands of. 
feet deep — Fine trout fishing. 

Heart of the Rockies — Snowy Range, peaks 11, 000 to 14,250 
feet altitude — Remarkable records of glacial period. 

118 Two active volcanoes, Mauna Loa, largest in the world, 
and Kilauea, whose lakeof bubbling lava is world famed — ■ 
A third volcano, Haleakala, whose crater, 8 miles wide, 
contains many cones. 

124 Active volcano -Lassen Peak, 10,437 feet in altitude — 
Cinder Cone, 6,907 feet — Hot springs — Mud geysers. 

2, 200 Highest .Mountain in North America— Rises higher above 
' surrounding country than any mountain in the world. 



National Parks of less popular interest are: 

Casa Grande Ruin, 1889, Arizona Prehistoric Indian ruin. 

Wind Cave, 1903, South Dakota Large natural cavern. 

Sullys Hill, 1904, North Dakota Wooded hilly tract on Devils Lake 



HOW TO REACH THE NATIONAL PARKS 




The map shows the location of all of our National Parks and their principal railroad connections. 
The traveler may work out his routes to suit himself. Low round-trip excursion fares to the American 
Rocky Mountain region and Pacific Coast may be availed of in visiting the National Parks during 
their respective seasons, thus materially reducing the cost of the trip. Transcontinental through 
trains and branch lines make the Parks easy of access from all parts of the United States. For schedules 
and excursion fares to and between the National Parks apply to your local railway ticket office or 
to any excursion agency, or write to the Piissenger Departments of the railroads which appear on the 
above map, as follows: 

Arizon.\ E.\ster>^ R.\ii,ro.\d Tucson, Ariz. 

Atchison, TopRK.\ & S.-VNT.\ Fg R.\iL WAY 1 119 Railway Exchange, Chicago. 111. 

Chicago & North Western R.mlw.w 226 West Jackson Boulevard, Chicago. 111. 

Chic.\go, Uuri,ini;ton & Quincy R.-mlroad Co 547 West Jackson Boulevard, Chicago. 111. 

Chicago. ^IiLVVAUKEE & St. P.-^ul Railway Railway E.xchange. Chicago, 111. 

Chic.\go. Rock Island & Pacific Railway Co La Salle StreL>t .Station, Chicago. 111. 

Colorado & Southern Railway Railway Exchange Building. Denver. Colo. 

Denver & Rio Grande Railro.\d Co Equitable Building, Denver. Colo. 

Great Norther.n Railw.w Railroad Building, Fourth and Jackson Streets, St. Paul. Minn. 

Gulf, Colorado & Santa Fe Railway Galveston, Tex. 

Illinois Central R.'\ilro.\d Central Station. Chicago. 111. 

Missouri Pacific Railway Railway Exchange Building. St. Louis. Mo. 

Northern PacificR.mlway Railroad Building. Fifth and J. icksou Streets, St. Paul, Minn. 

San Pedro. Los Angeles & S.\lt Lake Railroad .... Pacific Elcctrii- Huildiui;. Los Angeles, Cal. 

Southern Pacific Co Flood Biulliiii:, San Francisco. Cal. 

Union Pacific System . Garlinl Building. %ii East WashimjtDU Street, Chicago. 111. 

W.\i)ASH Railway Railway Exchainie Building, St. Louis, Mo. 

Western Pacific Railway Mills Building. San Francisco. Cal. 

For information about sojourning and traveling within the National Parks write to the Department 
of the Interior for the Information circular of the Park or Parks in which you are interested. 

REMEMBER THAT 

THE NATIONAL PARKS BELONG TO YOU 

THEY ARE THE GREAT NATIONAL PLAYGROUNDS OE THE AMERICAN PEOPLE 
FOR WHOM THEY ARE ADMINISTERED BY THE DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR 

,. WASHINGTON : GOVEUN.MK.NT ruINTIXG Ol'FICE : 1917 



• I^I^KS^ 



%^ >;^ 




THE HOT SPRINGS 

of ARKANSAS 



AND 



CERTAIN OTHER NATIONAL PARKS 
AND NATIONAL MONUMENTS 



DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR 
Franklin K. Lane, Secretary 



NATIONAL PARK SERVICE 






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Main Entrance to thk Hot Springs Rkskrvation 

SPRINGS OF HEALING 



1R0M the slopes of a picturesque wooded hill among the wild and 

F romantic Ozark Mountains of Arkansas flow springs of hot water 
whose powers to alleviate certain bodily ills have been recognized 
- 1 for many generations. Tradition has it that their curative proper- 
ties were known to the Indians long before the Spanish invasion. It is prob- 
able that they were known to De Soto, who died in 1542, less than a hundred 
miles away. It is tradition that Indian warring tribes suspended all hostilities 
at these healing springs whose neighborhood they called " The Land of Peace." 

Government analyses of the waters disclose more than twenty chemical 
constituents, but it is not these nor their combination to which is principally 
attributed the water's unquestioned helpfulness in many disordered conditions, 
but to their remarkable radioactivity. 

The reservation is the oldest national park, having received that status 
in 1832, forty years before the wonders of the Yellowstone first inspired 
Congress with the idea that scenery was a national asset deserving of pres- 
ervation for the use and enjoyment of succeeding generations. No aesthetic 
consideration was involved in this early act of national conservation. Congress 
was inspired only by the undoubted, but at that time inexplicable, natural 
power of these waters to alleviate certain bodily ills. The motive was to retain 
these unique waters in public possession to be available to all persons for all 
time at a minimum, even a nominal, cost. 




Maurice Spring, Hot Strings Reservation 
This is centrally located and hundreds of j^ersons visit it daily 




OnF OV IHF. HkST (lOIF CoilRSFS IN THF SoUTH 

DR. NATURE'S WATER CURE 




OT SPRINGS has much besides its curative waters to attract and 
hold the visitor. It has one of the best and most interesting golf 
courses in the South. The surrounding country is romantically 
beautiful. Many miles of woodland trail lead the walker and the 
horseback rider through pine-scented glades and glens and over mountain tops 
of unusual charm. There is tennis for the young folks, ostrich and alligator 
farms for the curious, and the gayeties of life in big hotels for all. 

Hot Springs is not merely a winter resort, as used to be supposed. Climate 
and conditions are delightful the year around, as increasing throngs are rapidly 
discovering. It is above all a place for rest and recuperation. More and more 
winter visitors are remaining through April and May, when the spring is young 
and glorious and the baths the most efficacious. But those who remain after 
March should bring summer clothing, as the temperature then ranges from 65 
to 85 degrees. 

The reservation includes three mountains and a lake, and the tract incloses 
all the forty-six hot springs. Eleven bathhouses, some of them as complete 
and luxurious in equipment as any in the world, are in the reservation, and a 
dozen more in the city, all under Government regulation. There are also cold 
springs possessing curative properties. 

There are many hotels, the largest having accommodations for a thousand 
guests, and several hundred 1)oarding houses, many at very modest prices. 
Cottages and apartments may be rented for light housekeeping. 

Hot Springs Mountain, from whose sides flow the cleansing waters, is about 
fifty miles west by south from Little Rock. 




TiiK CjOi.f Ci.vn AT IIoi Srui 



ITS PICTURESQl^E HISTORY 



ilHIv recorded history of Hot Springs goes back to 1804, when four log 

T houses accommodated the people who traveled many weary miles 
of trail to bathe in the waters. The lands adjacent to the springs 
'I were claimed by conflicting interests which, as the waters grew in 
fame, waged legal battles for many years for possession. Then followed a 
generation of lax law when Hot Springs became the winter gathering place 
of gamljlers. This was the most picturesque period in its history. 

In recent years, with the awakening of the public conscience, the uplifting 
of the public taste, and the enactment of laws prohibiting gambling, Hot 
Springs has made rapid strides toward its manifest and enviable destiny. 




There Are Many Hotels; This One, the Arlington, is Onk of the Largest 




Pholograph by fl. O. Wood, Hawaiian Volcano Observatory 

The Celebrated " Ballet Dancer " of Mauna Loa, Hawaii 
A remarkable photograph of the explosion on the flank of Mauna Loa on May 19, 1916 

HAWAII'S SMOKING SUMMITS 




HE Hawaii National Park, created in 191 6, includes three celebrated 
Hawaiian volcanoes, Kilauea, Mauna Loa, and Haleakala. "The 
Hawaiian Volcanoes," writes T. A. Jaggar, director of the Hawaiian 
Volcano Observatory, " are truly a national asset, wholly unique of 
their kind, the most famous in the world of science and the most continuously, 
variously, and harmlessly active volcanoes on earth. Kilauea crater has been 
nearly continuously active, with a lake or lakes of molten lava, for a century. 
Mauna Loa is the largest active volcano and mountain mass in the world, with 
eruptions about once a decade, and has poured out more lava during the last 
century than any other volcano on the globe. Haleakala is a mountain mass 
ten thousand feet high, with a tremendous crater rift in its summit eight miles 
in diameter and three thousand feet deep, containing many high lava cones. 

" Haleakala is probably the largest of all known craters among volcanoes 
that are technically known as active. It erupted less than two hundred years 
ago. The crater at sunrise is the grandest volcanic spectacle on earth." 

The lava lake at Kilauea is the most spectacular feature of tlie new national 
park. It draws visitors from all over the world. It is a lake of molten, fiery 
lava a thousand feet long, splashing on its banks with a noise like waves of the 
sea, while great fountains boil through it fifty feet high. 

The park also includes gorgeous tropical jungles and fine forests. Sandal- 
wood, elsewhere extinct, grows there luxuriantly. There are mahogany groves. 




I'holociraph by J. J. H'llliams, Honolulu 

Lava Flow of 1881 Cascadinc tnto Pool of Watfr 




Conk on the Northeast Ridge of Maun a Loa 




54590°— IIS— 17 2 




Photograph by the Geophysical Laboratory, Carnegie Institution 

Near View of the Lava Lake of Kilauea in Heavy Smoke 




Photograph by the (icophysical Laboratory, Carnegie Institution 

Lava Flow on Floor ok Kilauea Crater, Showing Curious Ropy Formations 




Photograph by Geophysical Laboratory, Carnegie Insittution 

The KiLAUEA Lava Lake Close By. Picture Taken by the Light of the Lava Itself 

During a Period of Great Activity 




Photograph by Geophysical Laboratory. Carnegie Institution 

Night Photograph of the Kilauea Lava Lake, New Fountain Just Breaking Through. 

Period of Moderate Activity 




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MONSTER OF MOUNTAINS 




OUNT McKinley is the loftiest mountain in America. It towers 20,300 
feet above tide. Its gigantic ice-covered bulk rises more than 17,000 
feet above the eyes of the observer standing within the national park. 
It is ice plated 14,000 feet below its glistening summit. 
Congress created the Mount McKinley National Park in February, 191 7. 
This enormous mass is the climax of the great Alaskan Range, which extends, 
roughly, east and west across southeast central Alaska, separating the vast 
northeni inland from the more populated country whose shores are the Gulf 
of Alaska. The range parallels the mighty Yukon many miles to its south. 

The reservation contains 2,200 square miles. Its northern slopes, which 
overlook the Tanana watershed with its gold-mining industry, are broad valleys 
inhabited by enormous herds of caribou. Its southern plateau is a winter 
wilderness through which glaciers of great length and enormous bulk flow into 
the valleys of the south. In this national park, which the railroad now building 
by Government into the Alaskan interior will open presently to the public, 
America possesses Alpine scenery upon a titanic scale. In fact, it matches the 
Himalayas; as a spectacle Mount McKinley even excels their loftiest peaks. 



for the altitude of the valleys from which the Himalayas are viewed exceeds 
by many thousand feet that of the plains from which the awed visitor looks 
up to McKinley's towering height. 

hVom the stormy south Mount McKinley is wholly inaccessible. But from 
the plains of the north valleys of easy grade lead one from another to its very 
foot. Many attempts to climb it have failed. Only two, however, have met 
success, and these after almost unendurable hardship. With the completion of 
the Government railroad, however, this mountain pageant will be within three 
weeks of New York. The tourist can see all its beauty and sublimity without 
hardship. 

"It is an awe-inspiring region of massive mountains and ice-capped peaks," 
Belmore Browne, of the Camp Fire Club, testified before the Senate Committee 
on Territories. "The Piedmont Plateau, that follows the range, affords a beau- 
tiful roadway direct to Mount McKinley, and when you reach the plateau all 
difficulties vanish and you see a view that is unique on this earth. You see the 
huge mountain line of perpetual snow rising like a great wall on the southeast. 
You can ride a pony to where Mount McKinley rises 17,000 feet above you in a 
glittering wall of snow and ice. It is flanked by stupendous mountains, which 
make a wonderful setting for the monster." 

North of the vast mountani, however, is a rolling country dotted with beau- 
tiful lakes and forests and inhabited by enormous herds of caribou. In fact, 
the special reason why Congress set apart the region at this time was to con- 
serve the wild animal life in advance of the invasion of hunters which the new 
Government railroad will bring hito Alaska, the road as projected running 
within 20 miles of this greatest of nature's spectacles. 

Charles Sheldon, of the Boone and Crockett Club, told the Senate commit- 
tee that several times he has counted as many as 500 mountain sheep in a single 
day of ordinary travel, and that herds of caribou numbering from twelve to 
fifteen hundred are frequently seen. 

As a game refuge and breeding ground the new national park conserves 
Alaskan game which elsewhere is rapidly disappearing. As in the case of the 
Yellowstone National Park, the reservation serves as a perpetual center of 
game supply for large neighboring areas. 

These animals do not greatly fear man, because they have never been 
hunted. One can approach the great herds of caribou. There are also many 
Alaskan bear of great size. 













**y- 




If. . ki >• *r- .- . * Jr * f »,/.' ;>■+', "^i?^-/ '-• *!•. ' •-'»••' -.-.-■■r -•• '' 



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Photograph by P. J. Thompson 

Crater of Lassen Peak After Eruption of 1914 

ACTIVE VOLCANO AT HOME 




ONGRESS created the Lassen Volcanic National Park in August, 
19 1 6. A month later this volcano was again in active eruption; it 
is the only active volcano in the continental United States. It is 
situated in northern California, and is one of the celebrated series 
of peaks, including Mount Baker, Mount Rainier, Mount Hood, Mount Shasta, 
and what was once Mount Mazama (Crater Lake), in the Cascade Range. 

The region is one of extraordinary interest. Lassen Peak is 10,437 feet in 
altitude. Cinder Cone, which showed some acti\it\' a few years ago, has an 
altitude of 6,907 feet. North Peak, Southwest Peak, and Prospect Peak are 
prominent elevations in the National Park. 

Other features of interest are the Devils Half Acre, inclosing hot springs 
and mud geysers, Bumpass and Morgan Hot Springs, lakes of volcanic glass, and 
ice caves. There are seven lakes, numerous trout streams, and many majestic 
canyons. There are also forests of yellow and white pine, fir, and lodgepole. 
"On the whole," writes Prof. Douglas W. Johnson, of Columbia University, 
"it is difficult to imagine a region where the more striking phenomena of 
nature are developed on a grander scale." 




Lassen Phak. in Erlttion, Jllv, 1914 



5ia90''— HS— 17 i 




Cathedral Rocks, Mukuntuweap ; 





)NAL Monument, Southern Utah 



OTHER NATIONAL PARKS 

THE WIND CAVE NATIONAL PARK 

npHE Black Hills of southwestern South Dakota, scene of Custer's first stand, 
•■■ famous for many years for Indian fights and frontier lawlessness, are chiefly 
celebrated in this generation for a limestone cave of large size and interesting 
decoration. It is called Wind Cave because of the strong currents of air which 
alternate in and out of its mouth. 

The walls and ceiling of the various passages and chambers which consti- 
tute the cave are elaborately covered with the formations common to most 
caves, which here result in tracery and carvings of the most elaborate and sur- 
prising description. The park is also a game preserve of unusual merit. 

THE PLATT NATIONAL PARK 

0(KTTIII{RN Oklahoma's famous curative springs were conserved for the 
*^ public benefit in 1906 by the creation of the Piatt National Park. Sulphur 
springs predominate, but there are bromide and other springs of medicinal value, 
besides several line springs nonmineral in character. Altogether they have an 
approximate discharge of nearly five million gallons daily. 

Many thousands visit these springs every year. The country is one of 
great charm and is notable for its bird life. The healing waters are bottled and 
shipped to many parts of the country. 

THE CASA GRANDE RUIN 

/^NE of the best preserved and most interesting ruins in the Southwest 
^^^ has been preser\-ed in this reservation, which is near Florence, Arizona. 
Unlike the neighborhood Indians who fear the superb ruins of the Mesa Verde, 
the Arizona Pimas claim the Casa Grande as the home of their ancestors; but 
there is nothing but tradition to substantiate the claim. 

The structure was once at least four stories high. Many mounds in the 
neighborhood indicate that it was once one of a large group of dwellings of some 
importance. The ruin was discovered by the intrepid Jesuit Missionary, Father 
Eusebio Francisco Kino, at the end of the seventeenth century. 

SULLYS HILL PARK 

' I ^HIS reser\^ation is on the shore of Devils Lake, North Dakota, within two 
miles of the well-known h^ort Totten Indian School. It is a country of 
much natural beauty and admirably adapted to the purposes of a game 
preserve, for which Congress recently made appropriations. 



THE NATIONAL MONUMENTS 

THE DIFFERENCE HETWEEN A NATIONAL MONUMENT AND 

A NATIONAL PARK 

NATIONAL monuments differ from national parks principally in importance. 
The monmnent is usually the lesser area, and, the object being merely 
conservation, little provision is made for its maintenance and development. 

A national park is created only by act of Congress, and it is expected that 
thereafter Congress will make yearly appropriations to develop it. A national 
monument is set aside by Presidential proclamation without appropriations. 
The name "monument" is clumsy and misleading. 

THE MUKUNTUWEAP NATIONAL MONUMENT 

THE Mukuntuweap National Monument, in southwestern Utah, conserves a 
canyon that for fantastic outline and briUiant and varied coloring probably 
equals any spot on this continent. Recent visitors have called it "the desert 
Yosemite;" others, "the mimic Grand Canyon." It inevitably suggests both. 
"You can't see it without shouting," reports one recent explorer. 

The Mormons of a former generation chose this valley for a refuge in the 
event of being driven from Zion, as they called Salt Lake City, and named it 
Little Zion. It is locally called Zion Canyon to-day. The north fork of the 
muddy Virgin River flows through it, and in the spring streams cascade from 
the lofty walls. 

The canyon is a mightv cleft, as if the mountain had been violently divided 
to obtain a segment. The walls are inconceivably carved into domes, half 
domes, colonnades, and temples. One gigantic cliff suggests a battleship, and 
is locally called "Steamboat." 

The faces of some of the walls contain thousands of square feet of plane 
surface, upon which the elements have sketched various figures. At one point 
may be seen the picture of a woman, a horse, and a pig, forming a distinct 
group. At another an eagle perches, true to this noble bird's instinct, high 
upon the cliffs. At other points crypts have been formed in the walls by the 
shelling off of the stone surface. Nature seems to have fashioned here a fine 
art gallery of stupendous proportions. 

The coloring is beyond description. Glistening white is the basic color. 
Below this a strip of maroon-colored sandstone has weathered into formations 
resembling those of the Grand Canyon. There are thousands of feet of polished 
white sandstone streaked with vermillion, like a Roman sash. 

The canyon is more than fifteen miles long and varies from fifty feet wide 
in the narrows to twenty-five hundred feet wide in Zion proper. The neigh- 
borhood is rich in striking phenomena. There are natural bridges of great 
size and beauty. The country was settled by Mormons many years ago, and 
possesses much historical interest. Old-time Mormon customs obtain in the 
prosperous villages. Mukuntuweap may be reached by automobile and horse- 
back from Lund, Utah. 




A Glimpse of thk Beautiful Muir Woods 



IN THE FOREST PRIMEVAL 




ITHIN ten miles of the city of San Francisco, in Marin County, 

California, lies one of the noblest forests of primeval Redwood in 

America. That it stands to-day is due first to the fact that its outlet 

to the sea instead of to San Francisco Bay made it unprofitable to 

lumber in the days when redwoods grew like grain on California's hills. 

The Muir Woods National Monument contains three hundred acres. In- 
terspersed with the superb Redwood, the Sequoia sempervirens, sister to the 
Giant Sequoia of the Sierra, are many fine specimens of Douglas fir, Madrona, 
CaHfornia Bay, and Mountain Oak. The forest blends into the surrounding 
wooded country. It is essentially typical of the redwood growth, with a rich 
stream-watered bottom carpeted with ferns, violets, oxaHs, and azalea. 

Many of the redwoods are magnificent specimens and some have extraor- 
dinary size. Cathedral Grove, and Bohemian Grove, where the famous revels 
of the Bohemian club were held before the club purchased its own permanent 
grove, are unexcelled in luxuriant beauty. 

This splendid area of forest primeval was named by its donors, Mr. and 
Mrs. WilHam Kent, in honor of the celebrated naturalist of the Sierra, John 
Muir. It is so near San Francisco that thousands are able to enjoy its cathedral 
aisles of noble trees. 




It is One of the Noblest Forests of Redwood Saved From the Axe 




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'1'here Are lixQuisiTE Lakes, Also, in the Sieur de Monts National Monument 

SEA AND MOUNTAINS MEET 



ilY proclamation of Jiilv 8, 191 6, creating the Sieur de Monts National 

B Monument, President Wilson extended the national park service 
for the first time to the Atlantic coast. The area which enjoys this 
i| honor is one of fascinating historical association as well as majestic 
natural V)eauty. It embraces more than five thousand acres of rugged mountain, 
directly south of Bar Harbor. In fact, its northern boundary lies within a mile of 
that famous resort. On the east it touches the Schoonerhead Road. On its south 
it approaches within a mile of vSeal Harbor. It lies less than a mile northeast of 
Northeast Harbor. It is surrounded, in short, b}' a large summer population. 

This area includes four lakes and no less than ten mountains. The lakes 
are Jordan Pond, Ragle Lake, Bubble Pond, and Sargent Mountain Pond. The 
Bowl Hes just outside the boundary line. The mountains, several of wliich are 
widely celebrated, are Green Mountain. Dry Mountain, Picket Mountain, White 
Cap, Newport Mountain, Pemetic Mountain, The Tryad, Jordan Mountain, 
The Bubbles, and Sargent Mountain. 

The lands included in the Sieur de Monts National Monum.ent have never 
formed a part of the public domain, but, through the patriotism and generosity 
of the former owners, known collectively as the Hancock County Trustees of 
Public Reservations, were presented to the United States. The trustees were 
represented in the matter by Mr. George B. Dorr, of Boston, who. in the creation of 
this national monument, attained the object of years of public-spirited endeavor. 




Montezuma Castle 

MONTEZUMA CASTLE NATIONAL MONUMENT 

nPHIS remarkable relic of a prehistoric race is the principal feature of a 
■'• well-preserved group of cliff dwellings in the northeastern part of Yavapai 
Coiuitv, Arizona, known as the Montezuma Castle National Monument. The 
imique position and size of the ruin gives it the appearance of an ancient 
castle; hence its name. 

The structure is about liftv feet iu height by sixty feet in width, built in the 
form of a crescent, with the convex part against the cliff. It is live stories high, 
the fifth story being back under the cliff and protected by a masonry wall four 
feet high, so that it is not visible from the outside. The walls of the structure 
arc of masonry and adobe, plastered over on the inside and outside with mud. 

DEVILS TOWER NATIONAL MONUMENT 

' I 'HIS extraordinary mass of igneous rock is one of the most conspicuous 
•*• features in the Black Hills region of Wyoming. 

The tower is a steep-sided shaft rising six hundred feet above a rounded 
ridge of sedimentary rocks, about six hundred feet high, on the west bank of 
the Belle Fourche River. Its nearly fiat top is elliptical in outHne. Its sides 
are strongly fluted by the great columns of igneous rock, and are nearly per- 
pendicular, except near the top, where there is some rounding; and near the 
bottom, where there is considerable outward flare. The tower has been scaled 
in the past bv means of special apparatus, but only at considerable risk. 

The great columns of which the tower consists are mostly pentagonal in 
shape, but some are four or six sided. 




The Devils Tower, Wyoming 



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THE CHACO CANYON NATIONAL MONUMENT 
T^HE Chaco Canyon National Monument preserves remarkable relics of a pre- 
'■ historic people once inhabiting New Mexico. Here are found numerous 
communal or pueblo dwellings built of stone, among which is the ruin known as 
Puel^lo Bonito, containing, as it originally stood, twelve hundred rooms. It is 
the largest preliistoric ruin in the Southwest. 

So dixTicult are tliey of access that little excavation has Vjeen done. 

SHOSHONE CAVERN NATIONAL MONUMENT 

A FEW miles east of the celebrated Shoshone Dam. in Wyoming, is found 
^"^ the entrance to the picturesque cave to ])reserve which the vShoshone 
Cavern National ^Monument was created. 

Some of the rooms are a hundred and hftv feet long and forty or fifty feet 
liigh, and all are remarkably encrusted with limestone crystals. 

The passages through the cavern are most intricate, twisting, turning, 
doubling back, and descending so abruptly that ladders are often necessary. 

COLORADO NATIONAL MONUMENT 
T^HIS area, near Grand Junction, Colorado, is similar to that of the Garden 
■*• of the Gods at Colorado Springs, only much more beautiful and picturesque. 
With possibly two exceptions it exhibits probably as highly colored, magnifi- 
cent, and impressive examples of erosion, particularly of lofty monoliths, as may 
be found any>vhere in the West. 

These monoliths are located in several tributary canyons. vSome of tliem are 
of gigantic size; one ov-er four hundred feet liigh is almost circular and a hundred 
feet in diameter at base. Some have not yet been explored. 



LEWIS AND CLARK CAVERN NATIONAL MONUMENT 

T^HE feature of this national monument is a limestone cavern of great 
■'■ scientific interest because of its length and because of the number of 
large vaulted chambers it contains. It is of historic interest, also, because it 
overlooks for more than fifty miles the Montana trail of Lewis and Clark. 

The vaults of the cavern are magnificently decorated with stalactite and 
stalagmite formations of great variety of size, form, and color, the equal of, if 
not rivaling, the similar formations in the well-known Luray caves in \'irginia. 
The cavern has been closed on account of depredations of vandals. 



THE DINOSAUR NATIONAL MONUMENT 

"T^HE Dinosaur National Monument in Northeastern Utah was created to 
*■ preserve remarkable fossil deposits of extinct reptiles of great size. The 
reservation contains eighty acres of Juratrias rock. 

For vears prospectors and residents had been finding large bones in the 
neighborhood, and in 1909 Prof. Earl B. Douglass of the Carnegie Museum of 
Pittsburgh, under a permit from the Department of the Interior, imdertook 
a scientific investigation. The results exceeded all expectation. Remains of 
many enormous animals which once inhabited what is now our Southwestern 
States have been unearthed in a state of fine preservation. These include 
complete and perfect skeletons of large dinosaurs 

The chief find was the perfect skeleton of a brontosaurus eighty-five feet 
long and sixteen feet high which may have weighed, when living, twenty tons 







Unearthing the Skeleton of a Giant Dinosaur of Prehistoric Days 







T 



RAINBOW BRIDGE NATIONAL MONUMENT 

HIS natural bridge is located within the Navajo Indian Reservation, near 
the southern boundary of Utah, and spans a canyon and small stream 
which drains the northwestern slopes of Navajo Mountain. It is of great 
scientific interest as an example of eccentric stream erosion. 

Among the known extraordinary natural bridges of the world, this bridge 
is unique in that it is not only a symmetrical arch below Vjut presents also a 
curved surface above, thus suggesting roughly a rainbow. Its height above 
the surface of the water is three hundred and nine feet and its span is two hun- 
dred and seventy-eight feet. 

The existence of this natural wonder was first disclosed to William B. 
Douglass, an examiner of surveys of the General Land Office, on August 14, 
1909, by a Piute Indian called "Mike's boy," later "Jim," who was employed 
in connection with the survey of the natural bridges in White Canyon, Utah. 



THE PAPAGO SAGUARO NATIONAL MONUMENT 

WITHIX this national monument, which Hes about nine miles east of 
Phoenix, Arizona, and less than a dozen miles from the Apache Trail, 
grow splendid examples of characteristic desert flora, including many striking 
specimens of giant cactus (saguaro) and many other interesting species of 
cacti, such as the prickly pear and cholla. There are also line examples of the 
yucca. All here attain great size and perfection. The saguaro is that variety 
of cactus which grows in a cylindrical form to a lieight of thirty or thirty-five 
feet. There are also prehistoric pictographs upon the rocks. 

EL MORRO NATIONAL MONUMENT 

EL ^lORRO, or Inscription Rock, in western central Xew Mexico, is an enor- 
mous sandstone rock rising a couple of hundred feet out of the plain and 
eroded in such fantastic form as to give it the appearance of a great castle. A 
small spring of water at the rock made it a convenient camping place for the 
Spanish explorers of the sixteenth, seventeenth, and eighteenth centuries, and 
its smooth face well adapted it to receive the inscriptions of the conquerors. 

The earliest inscription is dated February iS, 1526. Historically the most 
important inscription is that of Juan de Ofiate. a colonizer of Xew Mexico and 
the founder of the city of Santa Fe. in 1606. It was in this year that Onate 
visited El Morro and carved this inscription on his return from a trip to the 
head of the Gulf of California. There are nineteen other Spanish inscriptions, 
among them that of Don Diego de \'argas, who in 1692 reconquered the Pueblo 
Indians after their rebelHon against Spanish authority in 16S0. 



T 



PINNACLES NATIONAL MONUMENT 

HE spires, domes, caves, and subterranean passages of the Pinnacles 
National Monument in San Benito County, California, are awe-inspiring 
on close inspection, and are well worth a visit by tourists and lovers of natural 
phenomena. 

The name is derived from the spirelike formations arising from six hundred 
to a thousand feet from the floor of the canyon, forming a landmark visible 
manv miles in every direction. Many of the rocks can not be scaled. 

A series of caves, opening one into the other, lie under each of the groups 
of rock. These vary greatly in size, one in particular, known as the Banquet 
Hall, being about a hundred feet square, with a ceiling thirty feet high. 

CAPULIN MOUNTAIN NATIONAL MONUMENT 

/'^APULIX MOUXTAIX is a volcanic cinder cone of recent origin, six miles 
^-^ southwest of Folsom, X. Mex. It is the most magnificent specimen for 
a considerable group of craters. Capulin has an altitude of eight thousand 
feet, rising fifteen hundred feet above the surrounding plain. It is almost a 
perfect cone. 




THE PETRIFIED FOREST OF ARIZONA 

THE Petrified Forest of Arizona lies in the area between the Little Colorado 
River and the Rio Puerco, fifteen miles east of their junction. This area 
is of interest because of the abundance of petrified coniferous trees. It has 
exceptional scenic features, also. 

The trees lie scattered about in great profusion; none, however, stands 
erect in its original place of growth, as in the Yellowstone National Park. 

The trees probably at one time grew beside an inland sea; after falling 
thev became water-logged, and during decomposition the cell structure of the 
wood was entirely replaced by silica from sandstone in the surrounding land. 



SITKA NATIONAL MONUMENT, ALASKA 

T^HIvS monument reservation is situated about a mile from tlie steamboat 
•^ landing at Sitka, Alaska. Upon this ground was located formerly the 
village of a warlike tribe — the Kik-Siti Indians — where the Russians under 
Baranoff in 1802 fought and won the "decisive battle of Alaska" against the 
Indians and effected the lodgment that offset the then active attempts of Great 
Britain to possess this part of the country. The Russian title thus acquired 
to the Alexander Archipelago was later transferred to the United States. 

A celebrated "witch tree" of the natives and sixteen totem poles, several 
of which are examples of the best work of the savage genealogists of the Alaska 
clans, stand sentrylike along the beach. 




THE TUMACACORI NATIONAL MONUMENT 

npHK Tumacacori National Monument in Santa Cruz County, Arizona, was 
*■ created to preserve a very ancient Spanish mission ruin dating;, it is thought, 
from the hitter part of the sixteenth century. It wlis built by Jesuit priests 
from Spain and operated by them for over a century. 

After the vear 1 769 priests belonging to the order of Franciscan Fathers 
took charge of the mission and repaired its crumbUng walls, maintaining peace- 
able possession for about sixty years, until driven out by Apache Indians. 

GRAN QUIVIRA NATIONAL MONUMENT. 

THE Gran Ouivira has long been recognized as one of the most important 
of the earliest Spanish church or mission ruins in the Southwest. It is in 
Central Xew ]\Iexico. Near by are numerous Indian pueblo ruins, occupying an 
area manv acres in extent, which also, with sufiicient land to protect them, was 
reserved. The outside dimensions of the church ruin, which is in the form of 
a short-arm cross, are about forty-eight by one hundred and forty feet, and 
its walls are from four to six feet thick and from twehe to twentv feet high. 



NAVAJO NATIONAL MONUMENT 

THIS tract encloses three interesting and extensive prehistoric pueblos or 
cliff-dwelUng ruins in an excellent state of preservation. These are known 
as the Betata Kin, the Keet Seel, and Inscription House. 

Inscription House Ruin, on Navajo Creek, is regarded as extraordinary, 
not onlv because of its good state of preservation, but because of the fact that 
upon the walls of its rooms are found inscriptions written in Spanish by early 
explorers and plainly dated 1661. 



T\{1\ NA'JIONAL i^ARKS A J A (tI^ANCE 

Number, 17, Totul Area, 9,774 Square Miles. Arranged chronologically in i1j<- ortl'r <,( their creation 



NATIO.N'AI- I'AKIC 
and lJal<r 



JJ'/r Si'KINGS RRS- 

J'.KVA'flON 

1832 

YlJU^OWSTONH 
1872 



YOSRMITH 
1890 

1890 

Grnkkai, Gkan'T 

1890 

Mount Rai.n'hvk 
1899 

Ckativk Lakk 
1902 

Platt 
1904 

Mesa Vekijk 
1 906 

Glacikk 
1910 



Rocky Mountain 
1915 

Hawaii 
1916 



Lasskn Voixanic 
1916 

Mount McKiNr.p:Y 
1917 



location 



Middle 
Arkansas 



North- 
western 
Wytmiing 



Middle 
eastern 
California 

Middle 
eastern 
California 

Middle 
California 

West 

central 

Washington 

Southern 
Oregon 

Sfjuthern 
Oklahoma 

Sfjuthern 
Ojlorado 

North- 
western 
Montana 



Northern 
Cr^lorado 

Hawaii 



Northern 
California 

South 

central 

Alaska 



akka 



square 
miles 



lyi 



3,348 



252 



324 



249 



i>^ 



77 



1,534 



398 



118 



DISTINCTI VE CHAK ACTKRISTICS 



46 hot sj>rings i>ossessing curative j^roperties Many hotels 
and boarding houses in adjacent city of Hot Springs — 
Jiathliouses under jjublic control. 

More geysers than in all rest of world together — iVjiling 
springs — Mud volcanoes —Petrified forests— <^irand Canyon 
of the Yellowstcjne, remarkable for gorgcjus coloring — 
Ivarge lakes and waterfalls — Vast wilderness inhabited by 
deer, elk, bisfjn, m<x>se, antelope, bear, mountain sheep, 
etc.; greatest wild bird and animal preserve in world. 

Valley of world-famed Vjeauty — Lofty cliffs — Romantic vis- 
tas — Waterfalls of extrarjrdinary height — 3 groves of big 
trees — Large areas of snowy peaks — Waterwheel falls. 

The Big Tree National Park — 12,000 sequoia trees over 10 
feet in diameter, Sfjme 25 to 36 feet in diameter. 



Created ix) preserve the celebrated General Grant Tree, 35 
feet in diameter — 6 miles from Sequoia National Park. 

Largest accessible single-peak glacier system — 28 glaciers, 
Sfjme of large size — 48 square miles of glacier, 50 to 1,000 
feet thick — Remarkable suVjalpine wild-fiower fields. 

Lake of extraitjrdinary blue in crater of extinct volcano, no 
visible inlet, or outlet — Sides 1,000 feet high. 

vSulphur and other springs possessing curative projjerties — 
Under Government regulation. 

Most notable and best-preserved prchistrjric cliff dwellings 
in United States, if not in the world. 

Rugged mountiiin region of unsurpassed alpine character — 
250 glacier-fed lakes of romantic beauty — 60 small gla- 
ciers — Peaks of unusual shape — Precipices thousands of 
feet deep — Fine trout fishing. 

Heart of the Rockies — Snowy Range, peaks 11,000 to 14,250 
feet altitude — Remarkable records of glacial period. 

Two active volcamxts, Mauna Loa, largest in the world, 
and Kilauea, whose lake of bubbling lava is world famed — 
A third volcano, Haleakala, whfjse crater, 8 miles wide, 

contains many cfjnes. 

1 

124 Active volcano — Lassen Peak, 10,437 ^^^t in altitude — 
Cinder Cone, 6,907 feet — Hot springs — Mud geysers. 



2, 200 



Highest Mountain in North America Rises higher above 
surrounding country than any mountain in the world. 



National Parks of less popular interest are: 

Casa Grande Ruin, 1889, Arizona Prehistoric Indian ruin. 

Wind Cave, 1903, South Dakota Large natural cavern. 

Sullys Hill, 1904, North Dakota Wooded hilly tract on Devils Lake. 

36 HS 



HOW TO REACH THE NATIONAL PARKS 




Pi-.--' ^• 



T»C M\n«IHN 1SL.*NPS \ 1 



The map shows tlic location of all of our Xational Parks iuid their principal railroad connections. 
The traveler may work out his n.iutes to snit himself. Low roinui-trip excursion fares to the Americm 
Ri.vky Mountain region and Paeitic Coast may be availed of iti visiting the National Parks dxiring 
their respective seasi.ms. thus materially reducing the cost of the trip. Transcontinent.il through 
trains and br.mch lines make the Parks e.isy of access from all p.irts of the United St.ites. l'\>r schedules 
and excursion fares to iuid between tlie National Parks apply to your loc.il railway ticket otVice or 
to anv excursion agency, or write to the P;vssenger Departments of tjie railroads which appe.ir on the 
above map, as follows: 

.■VRizo>f.\ E.vsTBRX R-VRRo.vp Tiu-sou. Ari;, 

Atchison*. ToPKK.\ & S.\NT.\ Fi: Railwav iiig R.iilw.iy Kxoliaii.cv, ChuMco. 111. 

CHic.VliO & North Wu^tkkx R.vilwav .•.-:< West .l.u-ksou HouU'v.irJ, Cliica.co. 111. 

Chicago. BcKUNCTON" & Qeix^Y RviLKOAi! Co 547 West J.ioksou Binilo\-.»rvi. Chiciso. 111. 

Chicago. MiLWACKBB & St. Tauu Railway R.iihv.jy E.\oluini;c, Cliii-iiKo.IU. 

Chic.\c.o. Rock I.<i..\xp & Pacikic Railway Co Li» S.UIe Street St.itiou. Chiaiso. 111. 

Colorado & SoiTHKKN Railway Riuhv.iv ICxoU.inso HuiKlini;. Pciivcr.Colo. 

Dbn\'ER & Rio O.kaxpb R.uuro.xp Co Eciuituble BiiiKliii;.;. lionver. Colo. 

Grb.\t XoRTHBKN" Railw.vv Riiilroad BuUdiiig. Foiifth iUid J.icksou Streets. St . raiil. Miiin. 

Gulf. CoLORAiK) & Sant.v Fe R-ULw.\Y Galvcsttin. Tex. 

Iluxois Cbntr.vl R.vilro.U) Centr.il St.ition. ChiciiKO. lU. 

Mii^<<.iVRi Pacific Railw.w R.iilw-.iy E.\oluu.;c HuiKiiuv;, St. l.oiiis.Mo. 

XoRTHBRX PaoificRailway Railoxul Biiildiiis;. Filth atul J.iokson Streets. St . Paul. Minn. 

S.VN" Pbpro. Los Axi^ELEs & S.VLT L-\KB R.MLRO.\D . . . . Piicifio Eleetrio BuiUliuv:. l.os Aiisclcs. Cul. 

SoiTHERX P.voiFic Co FKkkI BuiKiiiie. S;»ii Francisix>. Cal. 

Uxiox Pacific System GarUnd Buildini;. 5S East Washington Street. ChioaKo. 111. 

W.vB.vsH R.\ilw.vv Railway Exoh.mce Building. St. I.onis. Mo. 

Wbstern P.vcific R.\ilw.\v Mills Building. Stm Francisco . Ca I. 

For information about stijouming and traveling within the National Parks write to the Department 
of tlie Interior for the Information circuUir of the Park or P;irks in which you are interested. 

Ri-Mi"Mr>KR rirvr 

THE NATIONAL PARKS BELONG TO VOU 

THEY ARE THE GRK.xr NVIIONAI. PL.WGROUNDS OF THE AMERICAN PEOPLE 
FOR WHcm THEY .\REA0M1MSTKRED 15YTHE DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR 

38 HS WASUIXCTO.N : UOVER.XMENT rKIXTl.Nl.; OKKICK : 191T 



THE 



GRAND CANYON 

OF THE COLORADO RIVER 
IN ARIZONA 




Y Jar (HI-. J\I';vi Scjii.iMh o^ Ai.i. J-.akiiii.y .Si-kctacij-.s." — Chari.ks Dldlfy Warner 





I S S U h D BY 


T H E 


DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR 




NATIONAL PARK SERVICK 




Photonraph by George R. King 

"\t Is Beyond Comparison— Beyond Description; Absolutely Unparalleled 
Throughout the Wide World." — Theodore Roosevelt 




PItoloyraph by U. S. Reclamation Service 

Leaving El Tovar for a Scenic Rim Drive 



COLOSSUS OF CANYONS 




ORE mysterious in its depth than the Himalayas in their height," 
writes Professor John C. Van Dyke, "the Grand Canyon remains 
not the eighth but the first wonder of the world. There is nothing 
Uke it." 

Even the most superficial description of this enormous spectacle may not 
be put in words. The wanderer upon the rim overlooks a thousand square 
miles of pyramids and minarets carved from the painted depths. Many miles 
away and more than a mile below the level of his feet he sees a tiny silver 
thread which he knows is the giant Colorado. 

He is numbed by the spectacle. At first he can not comprehend it. There 
is no measure, nothing which the eye can grasp, the mind fathom. 

It may be hours before he can even slightly adjust himself to the titanic 
spectacle, before it ceases to be utter chaos; and not until then does he begin 
to exclaim in rapture. 

And he never wholly adjusts himself, for with dawning appreciation comes 
growing wonder. Comprehension lies always just beyond his reach. 

The Colorado River is formed by the confluence of the Grand and the 
Green Rivers. Together they gather the waters of three hundred thousand 
square miles. Their many canyons reach this magnificent climax in northern 
Arizona. The Grand Canyon is a national monument administered by the 
Department of Agriculture. 




J -iinuiii/iij'h by JJiniy i- W.nnann 

The Rim Road Affords Many Glorious \'ik\vs 

BY SUNSET AND MOONRISE 



HEN the light falls into it, harsh, direct, and searching," writes 
Hamlin Garland, "it is great, but not beautiful. The lines are 
chaotic, disturbing — but wait! The clouds and the sunset, the 
moonrise and the storm, will transform it into a splendor no 
mountain range can surpass. Peaks will shift and glow, walls darken, crags 
take fire, and gray-green mesas, dimly seen, take on the gleam of opalescent 
lakes of mountain water." 




^J$i 




Cot^yTight by Fred Harvey 

Hermit's Resi. Near the Head of the Her.mh Trail io the River 







J'hulu(/rapk by U. S. Rcclamaluin Service 

"Is Any Fifty Miles of Mother Earth as Fearful, or Any Fart as Fearful, as 
Full of Glory, as Full of God ?"— Joaquin Miller 




Photniirtil'li by U. S. Reclamation Service 

Still Farthkr Down thk Hfrmit I'rail 



PAINTED IN MAGIC COLORS 



— ~-i|HK blues and the grays and the maiives and the reds are second 

Tin glory only to the canyon's size and sculpture. The colors 
change with every changing hour. The morning and the evening 
l| shadows play magicians' tricks. 
"It seems like a gigantic statement for even Nature to make all in one" 
mighty stone word," writes John Muir. "Wildness so Godful, cosmic, prime- 
val, bestows a new sense of earth's beauty and size. . . . But the colors, tlie 
living, rejoicing colors, chanting morning and evening in chorus to heaven! 
Whose brush or pencil, however lovingly inspired, can give us these? In the 
supreme flaming glory of sunset the whole canvon is transfigured, as if the 
life and light of centuries of sunshine stored up in the rocks was now being 
poured forth as from one glorious fountain, flooding both earth and sky." 




iNlar the Bottom, Showing Hermit Camp at the I^oot of a Lofty Monument 

This photograph was taken several years ago. The camp has since been greatly enlarged, affording 

most comfortable entertainment overnight 

ri^riQW —r.C — 17 9. 




Pholouiaph by J- . A. Lathe 



The Profound Abyss 



ROMANTIC INDIAN LEGEND 




HE Indians believed the Grand Canyon the road to heaven, 

A great chief mourned the death of his wife. To him came 

the god Ta-vwoats and offered to prove that his wife was in a 

happier land by taking him there to look upon her happiness. 

Ta-vwoats then made a trail through tlie protecting mountains and led the 

chief to the happy land. Thus was created the canyon gorge of the Colorado, 

On their return, lest the unworthy should fmd this happy land, Ta-vwoats 

rolled through the trail a wild, surging river. Thus was created the Colorado, 




Photograph by U . S. forest Service 

The CioRGE Near the Mouth of Shinumo C'keek 




Copyn,jl:t t'v /•';<<: JIaruy 

Sunset from Pima Point. "Peaks Will Shift and Glow, Walls Darken, Crags Take 

Hamlin 




AND Gray-Green Mesas, Dimly Seen, Take on the Gleam of Opalescent Lakes." — 

LAND 

13 QC 




Photoaraphby U.S. K-.clamation Scr:-icc 

The Lookout at the Head of the Bright Angel Trail Near El Tovar 







Waiting for the Signal to Start Down Bright Angel Frail 
One may descend to the river's edge and back in one day by this trail 




Copyright by Fred Harvey 

The Celebrated Jacob's Ladder on the Bright Anc;el Trah, 

The photograph shows how broad and safe are the Grand Canvon trails. There is no danger in 

the descent 




Copyright by Fred Harvey 



When Clouds and Canyon Meet and Merge 



MASTERPIECE OF EROSION 



ilHE rain falling in the plowed field forms rivulets in the furrows. The 

T rivulets unite in a muddy torrent in the roadside gutter. With suc- 
ceeding showers the gutter wears an ever-deepening channel in the 
l | soft soil. With the passing season the gutter becomes a gully. 
Here and there, in places, its banks undermine and fall in. Here and there the 
rivulets from the field wear tiny tributary gullies. Between the breaks in the 
banks and the tributaries irregular masses of earth remain standing, sometimes 
resembling mimic cHffs, sometimes washed and worn into mimic peaks and spires. 

Such roadside erosion is familiar to us all. A hundred times we have idly 
noted the fantastic water-carved walls and minaretted slopes of these ditches. 
But seldom, perhaps, have we realized that the muddy roadside ditch and 
the world-famous Grand Canyon of the Colorado are, from nature's stand- 
point, identical; that they differ only in soil and size. 

The arid States of our great Southwest constitute an enormous plateau 
or table-land from four to eight thousand feet above sea level. 

Rivers gather into a few desert water systems. The largest of these is that 
which, in its lower courses, has, in unnumbered ages, worn the mighty chasm 
of the Colorado. 




PhMograph by V. S. Forest Service 



On the IMighty River's Brink 




A Quiet Stretch between Two Rapids 

Within tlie Canyon the livcr is crossed by cars suspended on wire cables, and also, in quiet reaches, 

by boats; there are no bridges 







N*5s^; 



Cupyriiilil hy I- rid Ilariiy 

Where the River Rests Below the Celebrated Marble Canyon Before Taking Its 

Plunge Into the Gigantic Canyon Below 

The Colorado rolls through many miles of vast canyons before it reaches Grand Canyon 



POWELL'S GREAT ADVENTURE i 




HH Grand Canvon was the culniinatiui^ scene of one of the most 
stirring adventures in tlie history of American exploration. 

For hundreds of miles the Colorado and its tributaries form a 
mightv network of mighty chasms wliich few had venture*.! even 
to enter. Of tlie Grand Canyon, deepest and hugest of all, tales were ciurcnt 
of wliirlpools, of hundreds of miles of iniderground passage, and of giant falls 
whose roaring music could be heard on distant mountain summits. 

The Indians feared it. Hven the hardiest of frontiersmen refused it. 

It remained for a geologist and a scliool-teacher, a one-armed veteran of 
the Civil War, John Wesley Powell, afterwards director of tlie I'nited States 
Geological Surs-ey, to dare and to accomplish. 

This was in 1S69. Nine men accompanied him in foiu' boats. 

There proved to be no impassable wliirlpools in the Grand Canyon, no 
underground passages, and no cataracts. But tlie tiip was hazardous in tlie 
extreme. The adventurers faced tlie unknoA\'n at ever}' bend, daily — some- 
times several times daily — embarking upon swift rapids ^^-itll0ut guessing upon 
what rocks or in what great falls tliey might terminate. Continually tliey 
upset. Thev were unable to build tires sometimes for days at a stretch. 

Four men deserted, hoping to climb tlie walls, and were never heard from 
again — and tliis happened tlie very day before Major Powell and his faitliful 
half dozen floated clear of the Grand Canvon into safetv. 




Pkoio^aph by I- ■ S. GtdccKd Sur-.ey 

Two OF THE Boats Used ev ^Ujor Powell in Exploring the C.\nyon 




Photograph by El Tovar Studio 

Memorial Just Erected by the Department of the Interior to Major John 

Wesley Powell 

It stands on the rim at Sentinel Point. Upon the ahar which crowns it will blaze ceremonial fires 

EASY TO REACH AND TO SEE 



ilT is possible to get a glimpse of the Grand Canyon by lengthening 

I your transcontinental trip one day, but this day must be spent 

either on the rim or in one hasty rush down the Bright Angel Trail 
I to the river's edge; one can not do both the same day. Two ardu- 
ous days, therefore, will give you a rapid glance at the general features. Three 
days will enable you to substitute the newer Hermit Trail, with a night in the 
canyon, for the Bright Angel Trail. Four or five days will enable you to see 
the Grand Canyon; but after you see it you will want to live with it awhile. 
There are two other trails, the Bass Trail and the Grand View. 

The canyon should be seen first from the rim. Hours, days, may be spent 
in emotional contemplation of this vast abyss. Navajo Point, Grand View, 
vShoshone Point, El Tovar, Hopi Point, Sentinel Point, Pima Point, Yuma 
Point, the Hermit Rim — these are a few only of many spots of inspiration. 

An altogether different experience is the descent into the abyss. This is 
done on mule-back over trails which zigzag steeply but safely down the cliffs. 

The hotels, camps, and facilities for getting around are admirable. Your 
sleeper brings you to the very rim of the canyon. 




Copyright bv l-'rcd 1 1 amy 

Hopi House at El Tovar, RiirRODUCKD from a»n Anciknt Hon Community Dwelling 



THE NATIONAL PARKS AT A GLANCE 

Number, 17; Total Area, 9,774 Square Miles. Arranged chronologically in the order of their creation. 



NATIONAL PARK 
and Date 



Hot Springs Res- 
ekvation 



Yellowstone 

1872 



YosEMiTE 



Sequoia 



General Grant 
1890 

Mount Rainier 



Crater Lake 
1902 

Platt 
1904 

Mesa Verde 
1906 

Glacier 
1910 



Rocky Mountain 
191S 

Hawaii 
1916 



Lassen Volcanic 
1916 

Mount McKinley 
1917 



LOCATION 



AREA 



square 
miles 



Middle 
Arkansas 



North- 
western 
Wyoming 



Middle 
eastern 
California 

Middle 
eastern 
California 

Middle 
California 

West 

central 

Washington 

Southern 
Oregon 

Southern 
Oklahoma 

Southern 
Colorado 

North- 
western 
Montana 



Northern 
Colorado 

Hawaii 



Northern 
California 

South 

central 

Alaska 



3,348 



252 



324 



249 



i;^ 



77 



1.534 



398 



118 



124 



DISTINCTIVE CHARACTERISTICS 



46 hot springs possessing curative properties — Many hotels 
and boarding houses in adjacent city of Hot Springs- 
Bathhouses under ])ublic control. 

More geysers than in all rest of world together — Boiling 
springs— Mud volcanoes— Petrified forests— Grand Canyon 

of the Yellowstone, remarkaljle for gorgeous colorint)- 

Large lakes and waterfalls — Vast wilderness inhabited by 
deer, elk, bison, moose, antelope, bear, mountain sheep, 
etc.; greatest wild bird and animal preserve in world. 

Valley of world-famed beauty— Lofty cliffs— Romantic vis- 
tas — Waterfalls of extraordinar>' height — 3 groves of big 
trees— I,arge areas of snowy peaks— Waterwheel falls. 

The Big Tree National Park— 12,000 sequoia trees over 10 
feet in diameter, some 25 to 36 feet in diameter. 

Created to preserve the celebrated General Grant Tree, 35 
feet in diameter— 6 miles from Sequoia National Park. 

Largest accessible single-peak glacier system — 28 glaciers, 
some of large size — 48 square miles of glacier, 50 to 1,000 
feet thick — Remarkable subalpine wild-flower fields. 

Lake of extraordinary blue in crater of extinct volcano, no 
visible inlet, or outlet — Sides 1,000 feet high. 

Sulphur and other springs possessing curative properties — 
Under Government regulation. 

Most notable and best-preserved prehistoric cliff dwellings 
in United vStates, if not in the world. 

Rugged mountain region of unsurpassed alpine character— 
250 glacier-fed lakes of romantic beauty — 60 small gla- 
ciers — Peaks of unusual shape — Precipices thousands ol 
feet deep — Fine trout fishing. 

Heart of the Rockies — Snowy Range, peaks 11,000 to 14,250 
feet altitude — Remarkable records of glacial period. 

Two active volcanoes, Mauna Loa, largest in the world, 
and Kilauea, whose lake of bubbling lava is world famed — 
A third volcano, Haleakala, whose crater, 8 miles wide, 
contains many cones. 

Active volcano- Lassen Peak, 10,437 feet in altitude — 
Cinder Cone, 6,907 feet — Hot springs — Mud geysers. 

Highest Mountain in North America -Rises higher above 
surrounding country than any mountain in the world. 



National Parks of less popular interest are : 

Casa Grande Ruin, 1889, Arizona Prehistoric Indian ruin. 

Wind Cave, 1903, vSouth Dakota Large natural cavern. 

SuUys Hill, 1904, North Dakota Wooded hilly tract on Devils Lake. 



HOW^ TO REACH THE NATIONAL PARKS 




The map shows tlae location of all of our National P;irks ivnd their principvU raila>ad connections. 
The traveler may work out his amies to suit himself. Low n.>und-trip excursion fares to the American 
Rocky Mountain region ;md Pacitic Coast may be availed of in visiting the National Parks during 
their respective seas^ms. thus materially reducing the cost of the trip. Transcontinental through 
trains and branch lines make tlie P.irks e.isy of access from all parts of the United States. l-\>r scheilules 
a:id excursion fares to and between the National Parks applv to your local railwav ticket othce or 
to any excursion agency, ur write to tlie P^issenger Departments of the railroads which appear on tlie 
above map. as follows: 

.\rizon-a Eastern' Railroao Tucson. Ariz. 

Arcmsox, ToPEKA & San-ta Fk Railway ing Railway Exchange. Chiaigo, 111. 

Chicago & North Wg^tbr.^ R.vilwav .-.o West Jackson Boale\-anl, Chii-aso. 111. 

Chic.\go. BuRUNC.Tox & Qi'iNvv Railroad Co 5 1; West Jackson Boulevanl, Chicaso. 111. 

Chic.\c;o. 'MiLWACKKE & i^T. Tai-l Railway "... . R.ulway Exchange. Chii-ago. 111. 

Chicago. Rock IsuwD & Pacific Railway Co Ui &Ule Street Station. Chit-;»go. III. 

Colorado & SovTHijKN R-MLWAV Railway E.vch.mge BniUlin^. I">cnvcr.CoIo. 

Denver & Rio Grande R.ulkoad Co Equitable BuiKlin;;. I>cnvir. Colo. 

Great XoRTHERX R.VILWAV R.iilro.id BniUing. Fourth ani J.ickson Strci-ts. St. Paul. Minn. 

Gulf. Colorado & Santa Fe Railway Galveston. Tex. 

iLLiN'ois Central Railroad Centril St ition. Chicago. 111. 

Mis.souRi Pacific Railway Railway E.xchange BuiMing. St. Louis. Mo. 

NoRTiiBRX PacificRailway Railroad Building. Filth and Jackson Strtvts. St. Paul. Minn. 

S.\N Pedro. Los .A.NC.BLES & .~^ alt Lake R.ulro.vd . . . . Pacific Electric Building. Lo< .■Viigclcs. Cal. 

SoiTHERV Pacific Co Flood Building. SvUi Fr.mcisiv. Cal. 

Union Pacific System Garhnd Building. ^-^ East Washington Street. Chicago. 111. 

Wab.\sh R.ULW.w Railway E.-cehango Building. St Louis. Mo. 

Western P.^apio R.vilway Mills Building. S.ui Franci<ix>. Cal. 

For information about sojonming and traveling within the National Parks write to the Dep;irtment 
of the Interior for the Information circular of the Park or Parks in which vou are interested. 



RKMKMl^.KR TH.\T 



THE NATIONAL PARKS BELONG TO YOU 

THEY ARE THE GRE.\T X.VnONAl. PI.AYGROINDS OF THE AMERICAN PEOPLE 
FOR \VHOM THE^- ARE AEff^^ljFERQy^Y Tilt aWAR TMENT OF THE INTERIOR 

l« KJ \J 'waShBBtO.N : OOVEUNME.NX rUlNTlXi; OFFICE : 1917 



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